Soft serve ice cream chain Dairy Queen shuttered the doors of 22 underperforming locations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico after a Texas-based franchisee, Vasari LLC, announced it has filed for chapter 11 protection, FoxBusiness.com reported yesterday. Vasari, who owns more than 75 locations, said the move comes as the company begins its restructuring plan to create a “smaller but financially stronger company” after many of its locations were negatively impacted by low oil prices and temporary store closures caused by Hurricane Harvey earlier this fall. Dairy Queen, which is owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) told FOX Business in a statement that “this was the decision of the individual franchisee." According to CBS affiliate KLBK, Vasari had a debt between $10 million and $50 million and the bankruptcy will allow the company to reorganize its debt instead of having a liquidation.
