Who Owns Fazoli’s? The New Owner, the Bankruptcy and the Full Owner Timeline
Last updated: November 3, 2026
Your local Fazoli’s kept serving breadsticks through 2026, even while its parent company went bankrupt, got sold, and changed its name. Headlines moved fast, and most pages that answer who owns fazoli’s still name the old parent months after the sale closed. Plenty of directories still list that old parent as the current owner, and their store counts are just as stale. The short answer is OHG Brands, a franchising company formed on September 30, 2026. The longer answer involves six owners across 38 years, a January bankruptcy filing, a June court sale, and a store count that fell while new restaurants opened in Canada and Puerto Rico. That gap between the headlines and the dining room is where most of the confusion lives.
Key Takeaways
- OHG Brands owns Fazoli’s today. The sale closed June 18, 2026, and the new name launched September 30, 2026.
- FAT Brands, the old parent, filed Chapter 11 in January 2026 with about $1.4 billion in debt. Fazoli’s kept trading.
- Headquarters never moved: still Lexington, Kentucky, where Jerrico Inc. founded the chain in 1988.
- Store counts need dates: about 147 restaurants in June 2026, and 138 US locations as of September 2026.
- Gift cards and rewards points survived the sale, and stores kept serving through the whole process.
The parent went bankrupt, the chain got sold, and your restaurant kept serving. OHG Brands is the owner now.
Source: QSRWeb coverage of the OHG Brands launch, September 2026, and Wikipedia’s OHG Brands page, checked November 2026.
Quick Answer: Who Owns Fazoli’s Right Now?
Fazoli’s is owned by OHG Brands, a restaurant franchising company formed on September 30, 2026. The business behind it, FBG Bid Co. LLC, bought Fazoli’s and 11 other chains from the bankrupt FAT Brands in a court approved sale that closed on June 18, 2026 for $595 million.
FAT Brands is the name most pages still show, and it is out of date. FAT Brands bought Fazoli’s in December 2021, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2026, and no longer owns the chain.
Nothing about your local restaurant changed hands twice. The stores kept operating through the filing and the sale, the Lexington team that runs the brand stayed in place, and the breadsticks never stopped. This article dates everything, because in a sale year the month a page was written matters as much as what it says about the present owner.
Source: QSRWeb OHG Brands launch coverage, September 2026, and Wikipedia’s OHG Brands page, checked November 2026.
The Owner Timeline: 1988 to Today
Six owners in 38 years sounds unstable, but the pattern is calmer than it looks. Fazoli’s spent long stretches under owners who mostly left the menu and the Lexington team alone, then changed hands in clusters when the restaurant industry consolidated. The timeline visual below is the short version, and the two sections under it give each era its due.
The Jerrico and Seed years (1988 to 2006)
Fazoli’s started in Lexington, Kentucky in 1988, founded by Jerrico Inc. Two years later, in 1990, Duskin Co. and the Seed Restaurant Group took control, and they held the chain for 16 years. That made the Seed era the longest ownership run in the brand’s history, longer than any owner since. The format most longtime guests know, quick service Italian food built around baked pasta and breadsticks, took its shape during these years.
Private equity and the FAT Brands era (2006 to 2026)
Sun Capital Partners bought the chain in 2006 and held it for nine years. Sentinel Capital Partners followed in 2015. Neither owner changed the brand’s name, its headquarters or its menu direction in any way that reached the dining room. The break came in 2021. FAT Brands announced on November 2, 2021 that it would buy Fazoli’s from Sentinel for $130 million, and the deal closed on December 15, 2021 at a total cash price of about $137.1 million. FAT Brands was a public franchising company collecting restaurant brands, and Fazoli’s became one name on a long list. That list is what broke in 2026.
Who has owned Fazoli’s, 1988 to today
Jerrico Inc. founds Fazoli’s in Lexington, Kentucky.
Duskin Co. and Seed Restaurant Group take over, the longest run at 16 years.
Sun Capital Partners buys the chain and holds it for nine years.
Sentinel Capital Partners becomes the second private equity owner in a row.
FAT Brands buys Fazoli’s for about $137.1 million, closed December 15, 2021.
OHG Brands owns the chain after the June 2026 court approved sale.
Source: Wikipedia, Fazoli’s ownership history, checked November 2026.
What Happened in 2026: Bankruptcy, Sale and a New Name
Why FAT Brands filed
FAT Brands filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2026, on January 26 by the reporting, carrying about $1.4 billion in debt. The filing was about the parent company’s balance sheet, not a ruling that the restaurants themselves had failed. Chapter 11 let the company sell its restaurant assets under court supervision instead of shutting them down.
A bankruptcy sale splits a portfolio. Some FAT Brands names went to other buyers, and Twin Peaks and Hot Dog on a Stick were among the concepts sold separately. Fazoli’s stayed with the main group of brands that the lenders took through FBG Bid Co.
What FBG Bid Co. bought, and what it did not
FBG Bid Co. LLC, an entity formed by the lenders, acquired the remaining portfolio, Fazoli’s included, for $595 million in a court approved sale that closed on June 18, 2026. On September 30, 2026, that company relaunched as OHG Brands, short for Original. Honest. Good., overseeing more than 1,700 franchised and company units across 12 concepts. What it did not buy was a broken restaurant chain. It bought the franchising rights, the brand and the support system. The stores themselves belong mostly to local franchise owners, which is why the dining rooms never went dark.
Expert tip: when a parent company files Chapter 11, find out who bought the assets before you judge your local store. A court supervised sale usually means the restaurants were the valuable part, and valuable parts keep trading.
January 26, 2026. FAT Brands files for Chapter 11 protection with about $1.4 billion in debt.
Spring 2026. The court process splits the portfolio, and some brands are sold to separate buyers.
June 18, 2026. FBG Bid Co. closes its $595 million purchase, Fazoli’s included.
September 30, 2026. The buyer relaunches as OHG Brands, a 12 concept franchising company.
Source: QSRWeb and Wikipedia’s OHG Brands page, checked November 2026.
Is Fazoli’s Going Out of Business?
No. Fazoli’s is not going out of business, and no chainwide closure has been announced. The chain changed owners in June 2026 and kept trading through the bankruptcy, the sale and the rebrand. Stores that were open in January were serving under the same name in October, and new ones opened in Canada and Puerto Rico during the same year.
The confusion is understandable. The bankruptcy headlines carried the parent company’s name, and many readers met them next to a story about their own local store closing. Both things happened at once: the parent failed, and the chain shrank. Reporting during 2026 counted as many as 50 locations closed since November 2025, and each closure looked, from the street, like the whole brand folding.
A local closure is a store decision, often a franchise lease or a weak market, not a chain verdict. If your store does close, your gift card balance still spends at any other location, and our Fazoli’s gift card balance check and how cards work page shows how to check what is on the card. The honest worry is not whether Fazoli’s exists next year. It is whether your specific store is one of the strong ones, and that answer is local.
💡 Expert Tip: Read a Closure Headline Carefully
A headline about FAT Brands is a story about a parent company balance sheet. A headline about your town’s Fazoli’s is a store story. Only the second one changes your Friday plans, and the two ran side by side all through 2026.
Source: bankruptcy and closure reporting from QSRWeb and Nation’s Restaurant News, checked November 2026.
How Many Fazoli’s Restaurants Are Left?
Ask three websites how many Fazoli’s restaurants exist and you will get three answers, because each counted on a different date in a year when the number kept falling. In the FAT Brands era the chain was usually quoted at more than 200 restaurants. One dated count put the chain at about 147 restaurants in June 2026. Wikipedia put the US total at 138 locations as of September 2026.
The gap between those numbers is mostly closures, plus timing. Old pages keep the 200 plus figure alive years after it stopped being true, and data scrapers copy each other, so a stale count can look well sourced. The dated counts in the table below are the ones to quote. While the US total fell, the map grew at the edges: the Fazoli’s Canada locations and opening story added a Saskatoon restaurant in October 2026 under the new owner, and the chain opened its first Puerto Rico restaurant in Bayamón the same year.
Expert tip: never quote a restaurant count without its month and year. For a chain in a sale year, a count from January and a count from September are both honest and completely different.
| When it was counted | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2021, FAT Brands purchase era | More than 200 | The figure old pages still quote |
| June 2026 | About 147 restaurants | Dated count from the sale month |
| September 2026 | 138 US locations | Wikipedia count after the 2026 closures |
Counts as published by each source on the dates shown, checked November 2026. The numbers differ because closures continued through 2026.
Who Runs Fazoli’s Day to Day?
OHG Brands owns the brand, but it does not cook your lunch. Day to day, Fazoli’s is run from its headquarters at 2470 Palumbo Drive in Lexington, Kentucky, the city where the chain was founded. Tim Kimmel serves as president of Fazoli’s in 2026, leading the team that sets the menu, the standards and the support for stores.
Most restaurants are owned by local franchise operators, not by the parent company. The person who owns your town’s Fazoli’s likely holds the building lease, hires the crew and decides whether that store takes part in optional programs. OHG Brands sits one level above the Lexington team, running the franchising platform it shares with 11 other restaurant concepts. That structure explains a lot of what guests notice: national menus and promotions from the center, local prices and participation at the edges. When a store runs a local special you have never seen online, that is the franchise layer showing, not a mistake.
Expert tip: if a promotion or a menu item is missing at your store, the decision was probably made by the local owner, not by Lexington. Ask the store first before blaming the chain.
Source: Wikipedia and corporate profile listings, checked November 2026.
What the New Owner Means for Customers
For guests, the sale was quieter than the headlines. Gift cards kept working, rewards points stayed in accounts, and the menu kept moving. The clearest proof of life came in October 2026, when the chain put chicken wings on the menu at company stores, a product launch planned and funded like a chain that expects to be around. Our Fazoli’s chicken wings flavors, prices and calories page covers that launch in full.
Two things deserve a watchful eye in 2027. Trade reporting during the sale noted franchise registration hiccups in some states, paperwork the new owner inherited from the collapse, which can slow new store signings until it is cleaned up. And the store count is still settling: closures of weak stores may continue while Canada style expansion deals move at their own pace. Neither changes tonight’s dinner. Both decide what the map looks like in two years. The Canada growth under the new owner, covered in the store count section above, is the clearest sign that OHG Brands bought Fazoli’s to run it, not to wind it down.
Expert tip: judge a new owner by what reaches the dining room. Menu launches, store openings and working gift cards are real signals. Press releases are not.
| Area | What happened in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner name | Changed: FAT Brands out, OHG Brands in from June 2026 |
| Headquarters | Stayed the same: Lexington, Kentucky |
| Gift cards and rewards | Stayed the same: kept working through the sale |
| Menu | Kept moving: chicken wings launched October 2026 |
Based on QSRWeb launch coverage and Wikipedia, checked November 2026.
Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake is quoting FAT Brands as the current owner. Directories, profile pages and even some news sidebars still list it as the parent months after the June 2026 sale. If a page names FAT Brands and carries no 2026 date, treat everything else on it as stale too.
The second mistake is trusting an undated store count. A page saying 200 plus locations is quoting the FAT Brands era. The third is reading one local closure as a chain closure: stores closed in weak markets all through 2026 while the chain opened in two new territories. The fourth is panic spending a gift card the week a bankruptcy headline lands. Cards survived this sale untouched, and a rushed spend just trades a flexible balance for a meal you did not plan.
A quieter mistake is assuming the new owner means a new menu. OHG Brands bought a working system, and the fastest way to break it would be to rename the restaurants or rewrite the menu in year one. Judge changes as they actually arrive, store by store. Each of these mistakes comes from the same habit, reading a 2026 story with 2021 information.
The parent went bankrupt. The chain got sold. Your restaurant kept serving. Three different events, and only one of them is about dinner.
Summary based on the sources listed in the References section below.
FAQ
Who owns Fazoli’s now?
Fazoli’s is owned by OHG Brands, a franchising company formed on September 30, 2026. The buyer behind it, FBG Bid Co. LLC, purchased Fazoli’s and 11 other former FAT Brands concepts in a court approved sale that closed on June 18, 2026, for $595 million.
Is Fazoli’s going out of business?
No. No chainwide closure has been announced, and Fazoli’s kept trading through its parent company’s bankruptcy and the June 2026 sale. Some individual stores closed during 2026, as many as 50 by one count since November 2025, but new restaurants also opened in Canada and Puerto Rico.
Did Fazoli’s file for bankruptcy?
Fazoli’s itself did not file. Its parent company, FAT Brands, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2026 with about $1.4 billion in debt. The filing covered the parent’s finances. Fazoli’s restaurants kept operating during the case and were sold to FBG Bid Co. in June 2026.
When did OHG Brands take over Fazoli’s?
The takeover happened in two steps. FBG Bid Co. LLC closed its purchase of Fazoli’s on June 18, 2026, which is when ownership actually changed hands. The company then relaunched under the OHG Brands name on September 30, 2026, so both dates appear in coverage.
Who founded Fazoli’s and when?
Fazoli’s was founded in 1988 in Lexington, Kentucky by Jerrico Inc. The first owner held the chain only briefly: Duskin Co. and the Seed Restaurant Group took over in 1990 and ran it until 2006, still the longest ownership run in the brand’s history.
Where is Fazoli’s headquarters?
Fazoli’s headquarters is in Lexington, Kentucky, at 2470 Palumbo Drive. The chain has been based in Lexington since Jerrico Inc. founded it there in 1988, through every ownership change since, including the 2026 sale to OHG Brands. The parent company’s offices sit elsewhere.
How many Fazoli’s locations are there in 2026?
It depends on the date you count. One dated count put the chain at about 147 restaurants in June 2026, and Wikipedia listed 138 US locations as of September 2026. Older pages quoting more than 200 are using FAT Brands era figures from before the 2026 closures.
Who is the president of Fazoli’s?
Tim Kimmel serves as president of Fazoli’s in 2026. He leads the Lexington based team that runs the brand day to day, including menu, standards and franchise support, under the OHG Brands parent company that took ownership in June 2026.
Are Fazoli’s gift cards still valid after the sale?
Yes. Gift cards kept working through the bankruptcy and the June 2026 sale, because the restaurants kept trading and the buyer took over the operating brand. A balance from the FAT Brands era still spends at any open Fazoli’s today, including cards bought years ago.
What other restaurants does OHG Brands own?
OHG Brands runs 12 restaurant concepts with more than 1,700 franchised and company units in total. The best known names beside Fazoli’s are Round Table Pizza, Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Great American Cookies and Marble Slab Creamery, plus Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses.
💡 Expert Tip: Date Every Answer You Read
Ownership pages go stale fast in a sale year. If an answer about Fazoli’s carries no date, or still names FAT Brands as the parent, it was written before June 2026, and its store counts and contacts are stale too.
Tip based on the dated sources used throughout this article, checked November 2026.
Conclusion
Fazoli’s has now outlived five owners and one parent company bankruptcy, and it is still doing the same simple thing it did in 1988: baked pasta and breadsticks, served fast, from a Lexington run kitchen network. OHG Brands is the name to know now, and the dated counts in this article are the ones to quote. If a page you find still says FAT Brands, you know it is running on old information. For dinner tonight, nothing about the sale needs your attention. Check the menu pages, find your nearest store, and let the ownership story stay where it belongs, in the background.
OHG Brands owns Fazoli’s. The stores kept serving. That is the whole story in one line.
Summary based on the sources listed in the References section below.
References
- Wikipedia, Fazoli’s page with ownership timeline and September 2026 location count. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazoli’s
- QSRWeb, FAT Brands rebranding as OHG, September 30, 2026. https://www.qsrweb.com/news/fat-brands-rebranding-as-ohg/
- Wikipedia, OHG Brands page with the June 18, 2026 acquisition details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OHG_Brands
- Snack Food and Wholesale Bakery, FAT Brands bankruptcy and OHG launch coverage, October 2026. https://www.snackandbakery.com/articles/116463-fat-brands-goes-bankrupt-new-owner-rebrands
- Corporate Office Headquarters, Fazoli’s corporate profile with controlling owner update. https://corporateofficeheadquarters.com/fazolis-corporate-office-headquarters/
Note on sources: store counts in this article always carry a date, because the sources disagree with each other and all of them were right at the moment they counted. Fazoli’s closed dozens of stores during 2026 while opening new ones in Canada and Puerto Rico, so a count from January and a count from September describe two different chains. Where a figure comes from older material, the section says so.
