Chuck E Cheese's parent company, CEC Entertainment, has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the US. The company can continue to operate, however there are plans to permanent close 34 of its stores.
Founded in 1977, Chuck E Cheese is a major operator of coin-operated games, and its business model is a sale of eat-in pizza for families with a range of amusement machines available to play. It has employed 15,000 employees and has 555 locations in all, plus 186 franchise locations across 47 states and 16 countries.
Before Covid-19, Chuck E Cheese had already closed 11 of its stores, but now has listed 45 leases that it plans to rejects. Five of these stores are in California, with four in Florida, four in Massachusetts, three in Ohio and three in Oklahoma. This makes the company one of the latest victims of Covid-19, with it losing more than 90 per cent of its revenue despite its best efforts to work at deliveries and take-away business.
