Miami Herald – Burger King’s second-largest franchisee, Heartland Food Corp. headed by Miamian Al Cabrera, is cashing out the majority of its business.<\/p>\n
Heartland will close today on a deal to sell more than 240 Burger King restaurants to GSO Capital Partners. The cash deal with the New York hedge fund is for $155 million.<\/p>\n
Cabrera, chairman and majority owner of Heartland, said the plan was always to turn around struggling restaurants it acquired over the past several years and sell them for a profit.<\/p>\n
Heartland was created to buy up troubled Burger King restaurants, as franchisees across the country faced financial problems because of the company’s years of sales declines.<\/p>\n
”It’s time to climb another mountain,” said Cabrera, who will still retain his original 10 Burger King restaurants in South Florida. “Our horizon was always three to five years. We’ve done a lot better than we expected. I don’t think anyone has come in at the bottom and gone out on top like we have.”<\/p>\n