NPC International
NPC International is one of the largest restaurant franchisees and one of the largest restaurant operators of any kind in the United States. NPC is the largest franchisee of both Pizza Hut and Wendy's, owning more than 1,200 Pizza Hut locations and 385 Wendy's locations.
O. Gene Bicknell opened his first franchised Pizza Hut restaurant in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1962. In 1984, Bicknell and NPC went public, finishing the decade with 320 locations. In the 1990's, NPC acquired, and then later sold, both Skippers Seafood & Chowder House and Tony Roma's restaurant chains. Under the leadership of CEO Jim Schwartz, the company went private in 2001 and underwent two separate private equity acquisitions in 2006 and 2011. In 2013, NPC acquired its first Wendy's restaurants.
NPC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, 2020. Analysts pointed to a "perfect storm of problems...including coronavirus-related shutdowns, a massive debt burden of nearly $1 billion and rising labor and food costs."
