---
title: "Nation’s Restaurant News: Souplantation, Sweet Tomatoes Owner Files For Bankruptcy"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/563a5b40-e6f4-499c-a9fc-3d4c68e5a48d
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-souplantation-sweet-tomatoes-owner-files-for-bankruptcy-6157
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["Finance & M&A"]
published: 2016-10-04T18:13:54.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:35:58.872Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/9da4889210b1e8ca99549699bee487113975.jpg
---

# Nation’s Restaurant News: Souplantation, Sweet Tomatoes Owner Files For Bankruptcy

**TL;DR:** Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., the owner of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for bankruptcy and plans to close 20-30 underperforming locations. The company, owned by Sun Capital Partners Inc., has between $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-10-04. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-souplantation-sweet-tomatoes-owner-files-for-bankruptcy-6157).*

## Story

A number of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes locations will soon be closing. According to a recent Nation’s Restaurant News article, the owner of both restaurants, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

Sun Capital Partners Inc., who owns the San Diego-based company, reported between $1 million to $10 million in both assets and also liabilities. Garden Fresh will be closing around 20 to 30 restaurants that are currently underperforming. A majority of the company’s 124 units are in the Southwest and on the West Coast.

“By improving our capital structure through this restructuring, we’ll be able to accelerate the changes underway to refresh our restaurants and build a strong future,” says John Morberg, Garden Fresh CEO.

Since 2015, Garden Fresh has become the ninth restaurant operator to file for federal debt protection and follows a decline in same-store sales that has made a big impact on the restaurant industry in the last year.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- restaurant closures (topic)
- bankruptcy filing (topic)
- debt restructuring (topic)
- Sun Capital Partners (investor)
- Garden Fresh Restaurants (company)
- Sun Capital Partners investment in Garden Fresh Restaurants (deal)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-souplantation-sweet-tomatoes-owner-files-for-bankruptcy-6157). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/563a5b40-e6f4-499c-a9fc-3d4c68e5a48d).