Burgez in crisis, the fast food chain is in liquidation: from the hamburger gospel to overdue debts, the parable in 10 years
Milan – The “world’s most irreverent fast food” has seen its exploit in Expo Milan, thanks also to intense marketing and communication activities, exporting the Burgez brand to other Italian cities . A parable that has now collided with the crisis, and with debts that have accumulated to the point of putting the business activity at risk . The Bankruptcy Court of Milan, in recent days, declared the opening of the judicial liquidation of Burgez Srl , the company with headquarters in Viale Vittorio Veneto 28 founded by the volcanic entrepreneur and writer Simone Ciaruffoli . A procedure that replaces bankruptcy, and allows the company’s assets to be sold to pay off creditors, ensuring an orderly solution to the crisis.
A curator has also been appointed , the lawyer Francesca Monica Cocco, who will have to analyze the company's documents and "proceed immediately , using the most appropriate tools, including photographic ones, to the informal reconnaissance of the assets existing in the premises belonging to the debtor" to carry out an inventory. The creditors' hearing for the examination of the passive status has been set for October 15th. In the ruling, the judges highlight that "the requirement of admissibility is met since the overdue debts are largely greater than 30 thousand euros" and that there is "a situation of insolvency of the company, deducible from the same confessional statements contained in the appeal" presented by the company itself, which has requested the opening of judicial liquidation. An attempt, therefore, to resolve the crisis and try to start again .
Burgez, since 2015, has inaugurated an expansion plan , planting its flags in the areas of Milan's nightlife, with locations in Corso di Porta Ticinese, Via Savona and Via Marghera . "The first real burger in Italy - the chain introduces itself - the one that taught everyone how to make an American burger. But it wasn't enough for us to be the best (in taste), we also wanted to be the baddest (in communication)".
A success gained, in fact, also with guerrilla marketing campaigns , such as the one in 2021, when a note written by a fake exploited worker was inserted inside the hamburger packages: “ Help me, I'm a Burgez cashier , I haven't been paid for three months. Let everyone know”. An advertising initiative also followed by some controversy, for the “bad joke” on a delicate topic such as work: in the years of the pandemic, in fact, the already precarious conditions of restaurant workers have worsened.
In March 2019, moreover, the fast food chain had given away, for Women's Day, t-shirts with instructions for "the real doggy style" . In that case too, controversy had erupted and in the end every reference had disappeared from social media. Ideas of the founder Simone Ciaruffoli, creative director of the Upper Beast Side agency and also author of an autobiography, "The Gospel According to Burgez" , narrating his entrepreneurial adventure that in five years led him "from absolute poverty to wealth".
Burgez joins a long list of chains that have ended up in crisis , in a profitable but also difficult place like Milan. Chains like Vapore Italiano srl, created by Milanese Vanni Bombonato, with his food stores “That's Vapore“ . The Sun Tzu group, founded in 2015 by Edoardo Maggiori, which owns 12 locations in Milan including Filetteria Italiana , a chain specializing in meat, and the fusion cuisine brands Magnaki and El Tacomaki , has also ended up in liquidation.
Il Giorno
