- Children’s pizza restaurant Chuck E. Cheese is reportedly about $1 billion in debt and the restaurant may not be able to reopen
Children’s pizza restaurant Chuck E. Cheese is reportedly about $1 billion in debt, according to The Wall Street Journal. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chuck E. Cheese had to shut down its locations — which features animatronic bands and arcades. However, the restaurant may not be able to reopen.
CEC Entertainment — which operates Chuck E. Cheese — is talking to potential lenders for a $200 million loan to keep its doors open said The Wall Street Journal’s sources. And the company said it would offer top executives retention bonuses with a goal of helping the company navigate through this rough patch. And CEC is going to pay nearly $3 million to three executives, including $1.3 million to CEO David McKillips, according to an SEC filing.
Currently, Texas-based Chuck E. Cheese has 610 locations across 47 states. And back in April, the company said it was considering refinancing, filing for bankruptcy, and restructuring once the pandemic put a major strain on the restaurant industry as a whole. Thousands of Chuck E. Cheese workers were laid off over the last few months.
To generate revenue during the pandemic, Chuck E. Cheese operated under the brand “Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings” on food delivery apps. That brand is named after one of the characters in the animatronic band at some of the restaurant’s locations. The employees who stayed at the company helped run Pasqually’s as a takeout operation.
