Sailormen, Inc. is in the final stretch of a sale-oriented Chapter 11 run entirely on cash collateral, with authority to use lender collateral — and the sale-process milestone tied to it — set to terminate on July 12, 2026 unless an asset sale closes first.
The debtor, a Miami-based Popeyes franchisee operating 136 restaurants across Florida and Georgia that generated roughly $233.5 million in FY2025 sales, filed for protection on January 15, 2026 in the Southern District of Florida before Judge Robert A. Mark, reporting about $232.5 million in assets against $342.6 million in liabilities. Voluntary PetitionDkt. 1. The filing followed margin compression from inflation and rising input costs, weaker Popeyes same-store sales in 2025, and the collapse of a 2023 deal to sell 16 Georgia restaurants to Tar Heels Spice, which left the company exposed to lease obligations it stopped covering in April 2024. The immediate trigger came in December 2025, when BMO Bank N.A. and its lender group sued in the Southern District of New York to appoint a federal receiver. First-Day DeclarationDkt. 9.
Rather than seek new DIP financing, Sailormen restructured on cash collateral alone. The March 13, 2026 Final Cash Collateral Order authorized continued use of lender collateral, granted BMO replacement liens and a superpriority administrative claim, preserved a $250,000 professional-fee carve-out (including $75,000 for the creditors' committee's lien investigation), and embedded an explicit sale timetable pointing to a mid-June auction and June 30 sale consummation. . Pressure on estate liquidity surfaced the same day through an adversary complaint by former Interfoods owners Mark Reineri and Jonathan Marmolejos, who contend that Employee Retention Tax Credit refunds — including a $12.8 million check already received — belong to them under a 2021 stock purchase agreement and are excluded from the estate. .
Following the June 17, 2026 auction, the debtor secured a June 29 stipulation extending cash collateral authority, the sale milestone, and adequate protection through July 12, backed by an added $1 million payment and $60,000 in weekly payments to the lender group and Popeyes waivers of administrative claims for royalties and advertising. Cash Collateral ExtensionDkt. 748. The case now converges on a July 10 omnibus hearing that will take up the debtor's motion to reject its Granite Telecommunications contract, landlord Field Apartments' motion to compel compliance with a prior court order, and a separate landlord administrative-expense application. Granite Rejection MotionDkt. 752.
