Sonic shuts down Berks locations
The owner of the Sonic franchise for 10 locations in southeastern and central Pennsylvania — including Caernarvon and Exeter townships — has closed the restaurants and has filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications — or WARN notice — for the workforce.
Malvern, Chester Countybased Restco LP filed the notice with the state Department of Labor & Industry and it went into effect Dec. 16. All have been classified as permanent closures. The closures will affect 22 employees at the Exeter location and 21 at the Caernarvon location. Overall, the franchise employed 241.
Other shuttered locations include:
• West Earl Township, Lancaster County.
• Rapho Township, Lancaster County.
• East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County.
• Willow Grove, Montgomery County.
• Norristown, Montgomery County.
• Royersford, Montgomery County.
• Holmes, Delaware County.
• Philadelphia. Donald R. Welsh, one of the franchise owners, said in the WARN notice that the company was unable to secure a buyer and avoid a shutdown. The franchisees also said it had trouble negotiating with the Oklahoma City- based Sonic Corp. to remain open.
“The Company negotiated vigorously with Sonic to avoid closure, but those efforts also failed, leaving the Company with no option to continue operating a Sonic restaurant as it was no longer permitted to use the Sonic trademark,” Welsh said in the notice.
According to the document, the WARN notice was not issued in advance because the owners thought they could find a buyer.
“The Company believed it had a realistic opportunity to secure a buyer, and, securing a buyer would have allowed the Company to avoid or postpone the shutdown,” it said. “The Company reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the required notice would have precluded it from obtaining a buyer, as it believed the potential buyers would not choose to do business with a troubled company or with a company whose workforce would be looking for other jobs.”