A privately-held Dairy Queen franchise network owned by Vasari (DBA Dairy Queen) filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, case number 17-44346.
The Company is represented by Vickie L. Driver of Husch Blackwell, and William M. Spae Jr. is Vasari’s C.E.O. According to documents filed with the Court, Irving, TX-based Vasari is the country’s second largest franchise operator of Dairy Queen (“DQ”) brand restaurants. Vasari operated an estimated 70 DQ locations across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico as of the petition date. According to Court-filed documents, the Company lists unsecured claims between $10 and $50 million, and the Chapter 11 petition indicates between $10 and $50 million in pre-petition assets.
The Company explains the events the primary cause of its bankruptcy filing: “The difficulties faced by the Debtor can largely be traced to the much publicized decline in oil prices. The decline in oil prices has severely impacted the job market for oil related jobs in regions of west Texas and east Oklahoma and has thus resulted in cross-industry declines in revenues in areas heavily dependent on oil related jobs. Many of the Debtor’s DQ locations sit in ‘Oil Country’ and have been severely impacted by the decline in oil prices due in large part to the loss of oil-related jobs and the resulting mass exodus of residents from areas in which the DQ locations sit. Since bouncing from a 12 year low, oil prices have begun to rebound; however, oil-related jobs have not. Without oil-related jobs, certain DQ locations will likely continue to underperform, causing a drain on the Debtor’s resources.”
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