Restaurant bankruptcies have become a closely watched part of the fast-food business as operators deal with debt, inflation, and weaker traffic. In Georgia, that focus has landed on Popeyes after one of the chain’s biggest franchisees won approval to sell dozens of restaurants, including five in the Savannah area.
Court approves sale of 97 Popeyes restaurants
A federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of 97 Popeyes restaurants owned by Miami-based Sailormen Inc. on June 23, according to court filings cited by NewsBreak. The transactions are valued at $16.55 million and are part of Sailormen’s Chapter 11 restructuring.
Sailormen filed for bankruptcy on January 15, 2026, after operating more than 100 restaurants across Florida and Georgia, according to the filing. The company said it was carrying about $130 million in secured debt when it sought court protection.
The approved sales cover a large share of Sailormen’s Popeyes portfolio, and most of those restaurants are expected to keep operating under new ownership, according to the report. That makes this less about a full brand retreat and more about who will run these locations going forward.
What the Georgia sales include
In Georgia, five Savannah-area Popeyes restaurants were purchased by SBH Foods PLK LLC for $650,000, according to reports cited by NewsBreak. The sale is expected to keep those restaurants open instead of shutting them down permanently.
The company has not released a comprehensive list of all affected Georgia locations in the public reporting cited here. What is confirmed is that Georgia was included in the broader restructuring alongside Florida, and that some Georgia stores were part of the court-approved sales.
Not every location found a buyer. Court filings show that about 22 Popeyes locations across Florida and Georgia remained unsold after the auction process, though a state-by-state breakdown of those unsold stores has not been publicly detailed in the source material.
Why the restaurant industry is paying attention
Sailormen said in its January 15, 2026 bankruptcy filing that rising labor costs, inflation, declining customer traffic, and heavy debt all contributed to the restructuring. Those are the same pressures many restaurant operators have been discussing over the past year.
The bankruptcy court also approved the rejection of leases for the unsold restaurants earlier this week, according to the report. That step clears the way for permanent closures unless new buyers emerge before the process is completed.
For customers in Georgia, the immediate takeaway is that several Popeyes restaurants, including the five in the Savannah area, are expected to continue serving food under new owners. At the same time, some Florida and Georgia locations remain unresolved, while the broader Popeyes brand continues to operate thousands of restaurants worldwide.
