15 Church’s Chicken restaurants closed in Oklahoma

Fifteen Church’s Chicken restaurants in Oklahoma’s two most populous markets have been closed by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, which says the owner of the closed restaurants has not been paying sales taxes.
The restaurants, which are franchised by the Tulsa-based Reciprocity Restaurant Group, are located in the cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Midwest City, Sapulpa, Broken Arrow, Sand Springs and Owasso. Midwest City is a suburb of Tulsa, while Sapulpa, Broken Arrow Sand Springs and Owasso are suburbs in the Tulsa metropolitan area.
Reciprocity Restaurant Group, according to a Tulsa World report, owed the state $434,583.78 in overdue tax and interest from February and April through August.
Founded in 1952 in San Antonio, Texas, there are now more than 1,600 Church’s quick service restaurants across the United States and 24 other countries, although the stores outside of the United States are known as Texas Chicken. Many of those restaurants are owned by franchisees.
The Church’s Chicken chain, one of the United States’ largest quick service restaurant chains specializing in chicken, in 2009 was sold by Islamic investment group Arcapita to the San Francisco-based Friedman Fleisher & Lowe for an estimated price of $390 million. The restaurant chain is now headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia.