The owner of French bakery chain Maison Kayser’s U.S. locations filed for bankruptcy protection late Thursday with a plan to sell itself in a court auction.
Cosmoledo LLC, which operates 16 Maison Kayser locations in New York, said in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition that it had agreed to a sale of assets to restaurant investorAurify Brands.
Aurify, which this yearbought the U.S. assets of bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien out of bankruptcy, also owns the New York operations of burger joint Five Guys, Melt Shop and The Little Beet.
Cosmoledo listed assets of as much as $50 million and liabilities of up to $100 million in its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The New York chain’s namesake operates around 150 locations in 22 countries. The U.S. restaurants started in 2012 with a shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Pandemic Shutdown
An effort to expand nationally faltered last year when the chain’s Washington, D.C. restaurants struggled, Chief Executive OfficerJosé Alcalay said in court papers.
The company sought to restructure its balance sheet and close underperforming stores and was nearly finished with those plans when the pandemic hit, forcing Maison Kayser to close its restaurants and furlough about 800 workers. The chain had hoped to reopen its restaurants in June, but found it unfeasible with New York’s restrictions on indoor dining.
The chain, which got its start in Paris in 1996, offers to-go pastries and coffee as well as sit-down dining.
The case is Cosmoledo LLC, 20-12117, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.
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