TEMPLE, Texas — Shortly after we aired a story about a group of Popeyes employees in Temple who claim they haven't been paid in weeks, the corporation released a statement and said the franchisee who owns and operates the West Adams Avenue location is "experiencing some technical hurdles with the new payroll system."
“These restaurants are individually owned and operated by a local franchisee, who also employs these restaurant employees," Popeyes said in an emailed statement. "We understand from the franchisee that it is experiencing some technical hurdles with a new payroll system and is working quickly to resolve it to ensure employees at these locations who are impacted are paid as soon as possible.”
The Popeyes located at 6512 W. Adams Ave. is owned and operated by the second biggest franchisee in the country, Guillermo Perales.
Perales is the founder and CEO of Sun Holdings, Inc, which operates hundreds of big-name restaurants like Burger King, Popeyes, Arby's, Papa John's, and more, plus real estate units and land for future restaurants.
6 News reached out to Sun Holdings to try and determine when its Popeyes employees would get paid, but we had not heard back by the time this article was published.
Upon investigating, 6 News also learned that Sun Holdings is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed in Houston.
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The company was sued in February 2022 over allegations it owes a little more than $875,000 in unpaid rent and other fees. A second company, Texas Corral, LLC, was also named as a defendant. Perales is named as the sole manager and director of Texas Corral in the lawsuit. The suit says Sun Holdings is liable for Texas Corral's lease defaults.
According to the suit, Houston property management company Beach Boulevard Investors leased a property at 3033 S. Loop West 610 in Houston to Sun Holdings in August 2015. The property was used to operate a Golden Corral.
The lawsuit claims that starting in April 2020, and through August, 2020, Sun Holdings failed to pay monthly rent. The lawsuit also claims Sun Holdings abandoned the property and didn't maintain or secure it, despite what was agreed to on the lease. As a result, the property was "repeatedly vandalized, resulting in further damage to [the] Landlord," the lawsuit reads.
On Sept. 13, 2022, Sun Holdings denied the allegations that it "failed and refused to pay monthly rent" in its response to the suit. They also denied the allegation that they "abandoned and failed to maintain and secure the property."
Sun Holdings also denied that it "owns, controls, and managers Texas Corral, LLC purely for Sun Holdings' benefit."
They've asked the court to dismiss the suit entirely.