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Meridian Restaurants Unlimited, a roughly 120-unit Burger King franchisee, declared bankruptcy earlier in March, QSR Magazine reported. The restaurants are across Utah, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Arizona. Meridian also franchises with Black Bear Diner, but that part of the business is not under bankruptcy proceedings. Meridian attributed its cash flow issues to increased wages (33 percent in the past few years), cost of labor, shipping, and food inflation (22 percent in the past two years), and decreased availability of staffing. For several years — mostly because of COVID — the company has "suffered significantly" from declining foot traffic. This has resulted in lower revenues, without proportionate decreases in rent, debt service, and other liabilities, according to court documents. Meridian has lower revenues than the system average because the original founder acquired underperforming restaurants. "These lower volumes result in smaller profit margins, and thus greater sensitivity to the recent dramatic rise in labor, commodity, and maintenance costs," court documents state. "As a result, although certain of the restaurants are profitable, others operate at a loss, and have for many years, resulting in the Debtors' inability to meet financial obligations timely."

HyreCar Inc., a publicly traded car-sharing platform, has filed for bankruptcy, partly blaming mounting legal fees from numerous lawsuits and investigations, including Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission probes into insider stock trading, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. HyreCar stock closed down 83% to 2 cents a share Monday. Its shares peaked at roughly $24 in June 2021. The Los Angeles-based company, which earlier this month warned that it might file for bankruptcy, has total assets of $16.5 million and total debts, all unsecured, of $18.4 million. The money is owed to trade creditors, its landlord and others. Last week it provided written notice to its landlord that it was ending its lease since all of its 59 employees have been working remotely. Holmes Motors Inc., which is affiliated with an equity owner who recently took a stake in the business, is offering to provide up to $5 million in bankruptcy financing, including $3.1 million on an interim basis. It will also serve as lead bidder in a sale process with a starting offer of roughly $7.8 million.

The Corner Bakery restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy this week, after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied out offices, bringing sharp declines in earnings and revenue, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Chief Executive Jignesh Pandya said a lender recently threatened a foreclosure sale, pushing the company into bankruptcy. The shift to working from home proved problematic for the chain as it generates a large part of its revenue from office catering and serving breakfast and lunch to commuters, according to court papers filed by Mr. Pandya on Wednesday. The Dallas-based chain has locations in about 20 states including California, Texas and Illinois. It was founded in 1991 and was acquired in 2020 by Pandya Restaurant Growth Brands LLC, which is operated by Mr. Pandya. Corner Bakery was negotiating with lenders who alleged it had defaulted on its loans. The company was in talks with its lenders to pay off more than $20 million, when they sold the loan to SSCP Restaurant Investors LLC, which then moved to begin a foreclosure sale of its assets, according to Mr. Pandya’s court filing. SSCP didn’t address Corner Bakery’s offer to make loan payments, according to Mr. Pandya.

More than a month after announcing it would be filing for bankruptcy, Window Select entered chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 17 against nearly 1,000 creditors, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. North Carolina-based consulting firm Cogent Analytics, which has assumed management of the company, is still planning to fulfill contracts to more than 850 customers, according to a statement released by the company's communication team led by Mueller Communications. The decision to enter into chapter 11 bankruptcy comes after hundreds of customers claimed they'd been scammed after purchasing windows and doors that were never delivered. Over the past year, dozens of customers and contractors from across Wisconsin have filed suits against the company. Among the customers and vendors who are owed the largest amount of money are Illinois-based Climate Solutions Windows & Doors, who say Window Select owes them more than a million dollars for custom projects, according to the filing. Media companies iHeartMedia + Entertainment and Scripps Media, Inc. are both owed around $140,000; Sinclair Broadcast Group is owed about $12,000, according to the filing.

Akorn Pharmaceuticals has announced they are filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and laying off hundreds in Decatur, Ill., WCIA.com reported. In a company-wide video call, Akorn President Douglas Boothe announced to employees that Wednesday would be the last day they can visit the office to pack up their belongings. Mayor of Decatur Julie Moore Wolfe estimates about 450 workers were laid off by Akorn. Boothe said the company had been looking for potential buyers since last year. “The company’s owners have just informed us they will not provide any additional financing required to run the business,” Boothe said. “Their decision leaves us, the board and the ownership and the management team, with no other alternatives to conclude the sales process and initiate bankruptcy proceedings.” The pharmaceuticals company will terminate all benefits from employees at the end of the month. Boothe also said they will be unable to pay severance or provide COBRA health insurance coverage to their former employees. Akorn previously filed for chapter 11 protection in 2020. Illinois Rep. Sue Scherer (D-Decatur) believes the company broke state law. Illinois’ WARN Act requires companies of more than 75 employees to give state and local officials 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff if they are laying off more than a third of the location’s workforce, or 250 workers. If the company is found violating the WARN Act, Akorn is liable to give backpay and benefits to their workers for every day they are in violation.

U.S. subsidiaries of Australian coal mining company Allegiance Coal Ltd. filed for chapter 11 protection on Tuesday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 filing includes the New Elk and Black Warrior coal mines located in Colorado and Alabama, respectively, according to papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., by Allegiance Coal USA Ltd. The Australian parent company said last week that it is switching away from the production of thermal coal because of a decline in prices for thermal coal delivered to Europe. Instead the company said it is ramping up production of metallurgical coal.

Avaya Holdings Corp. on Tuesday filed for chapter 11 for the second time in six years as it struggles to transform itself from a traditional office telecommunications equipment business into a subscription-based software provider, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company said that it filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston with a plan supported by most senior lenders to cut its debt by more than 75%, to roughly $800 million from $3.4 billion, and turn the page on an earnings miss last year that depressed the prices of its debt and stock. Avaya said that it has received commitments for $628 million in debtor-in-possession financing, including a new $500 million loan from an investor group led by Apollo Global Management Inc. and Brigade Capital Management LP, as well as a $128 million credit facility from a bank syndicate led by Citigroup Inc. Certain members of the investor group have also agreed to provide an additional $150 million in new money through a rights offering. The company said that it expects to complete the prepackaged bankruptcy process in 60 to 90 days.

Sycamore Partners Management LP’s Nielsen & Bainbridge LLC, a wholesale supplier of home décor for major online retailers, filed for bankruptcy protection to turn itself over to lenders KKR & Co. LP and Silver Point Capital LP, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Nielsen & Bainbridge said in court papers Thursday that top lenders KKR Credit Advisors (US) LLC, the credit arm of KKR, and Silver Point agreed to provide a $60 million bankruptcy loan and exchange the debt plus $57.7 million outstanding under its asset-based loan facility the lenders hold for full ownership of the company. The lenders’ credit bid requires court approval to take effect and could be challenged by any higher or better offer for the business, which supplies home décor and other home goods to bricks-and-mortar and online retailers including Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. The company’s chief transformation officer, Amy Lee, blamed the chapter 11 filing on “recent events all too common for retail vendors,” including supply-chain problems, rising freight costs, tariffs on Chinese imports and inflation’s impact on consumer spending. Nielsen & Bainbridge needs to emerge from bankruptcy in fewer than 60 days, Ms. Lee said in a sworn declaration filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas.

Pet-care retailer Independent Pet Partners Holdings LLC filed for bankruptcy, seeking to sell some of its stores to its top lenders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Woodbury, Minn.-based company filed for chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Sunday, blaming a sudden change in consumers’ pet food preference and the COVID-19 pandemic for lost revenue. Founded in 2017, the company has expanded its footprint by acquiring regional pet-store chains. The portfolio spans about 160 stores in a dozen states across the nation, under the banners Chuck & Don’s, Kriser’s Natural Pet, Natural Pawz and Loyal Companion, according to court papers. The company generated about $220 million in net sales in 2022. As of the petition date, it had about $182 million in assets and about $215 million in liabilities, according to the filing. It recorded about $111.4 million in secured debt. The company said its focus on grain-free, high-protein dog food caused it to lose about $10 million in sales in the second half of 2019 because pet owners stopped buying that type of product after reading reports that the food could cause dilated cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart disease in dogs, according to the declaration filing by Stephen Coulombe, co-chief restructuring officer of the company. The filing said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t established a causal relationship between grain-free diets and the disease.

Invacare Corp., a maker and distributor of wheelchairs, hospital beds and other medical equipment, filed for bankruptcy with a deal in hand with its lenders and bondholders to slash $240 million in debt and emerge from chapter 11 within four months, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company put itself and two of its U.S. subsidiaries under chapter 11 protection on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The chapter 11 filing doesn’t include its businesses outside the U.S., which generate a majority of the company’s sales, according to a court filing by Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Leneghan. Ahead of the filing, the company reached an agreement with its lender Highbridge Capital Management LLC and a group of bondholders owning two-thirds of its unsecured notes to slash debt from $358 million to roughly $118 million, according to Ms. Leneghan’s court filing. Highbridge is also providing a $70 million debtor-in-possession loan to fund the company’s stay in chapter 11.