Harshad Dharod’s Carl’s Jr. franchise group is moving to close 10 California restaurants and sell 49 more, putting 59 locations on the block after a Chapter 11 filing in April. The plan would reshape one of the chain’s biggest operators in the state and leaves open what becomes of the individual restaurants next.

People are searching for the move now because it turns a bankruptcy filing into a concrete restructuring plan. Friendly Franchisees Corporation, which describes itself as the largest California-based Carl’s Jr. franchisee, has acquired at least 65 locations since 2000, and the latest filing shows how far the pressure has spread inside the business. Bankruptcy documents reportedly show Dharod’s restaurants bringing in more than $6 million a month while losing more than $600,000 monthly in 2026, a gap that has made the California portfolio hard to sustain.

The strain has been building around rising operating costs, including California’s $20-per-hour fast-food minimum wage, while Dharod has also pointed to what he calls a lack of support and innovation from Carl’s Jr. as part of the problem. A company representative pushed back, saying the restructuring is limited to Dharod’s operations and will not affect other Carl’s Jr. restaurants. The chain said the entities involved have entered a court-supervised restructuring process under Chapter 11, and that the situation stems from this operator’s own financial and business circumstances.

Employees added another layer of trouble, saying understaffing, workplace injuries and violent encounters with customers made the restaurants harder to run. That leaves the most immediate question centered on the locations themselves: which 10 will close, which 49 will be sold, and how quickly the changes will move through California. For now, the plan marks a sharp reset for a franchisee that spent years expanding under the Anaheim-born fast-food chain and is now trying to shrink its way out of bankruptcy.