Hot dog chain Nathan's Famous will return the $1.2 million it received as a federal small business rescue loan
- Nathan's Famous said it received a $1.2 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
- The company says it filed before new guidance from the government that public companies should not request loans.
- The hot dog company says it plans to return the money.
- The company also said its restaurants are being affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Hot dog and restaurant company Nathan's Famous said that it received a $1.2 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and will return the money, according to an SEC filing.
The company said it was granted the loan on April 21, according to the 8-K. Nathan's said it applied before new guidance from the federal government strongly discouraged public companies from filing for the loans.
As a result of the new guidance, "the company has determined to repay and return the entire amount of the PPP loan to the lender." The move makes Nathan's the latest in a stream of publicly traded companies to announce plans to return the loan money.
The company did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Nathan's said its business has been impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak, which has caused restaurant closures, according to the filing.
"Operations at our company-owned restaurants and our franchisees' restaurants have been disrupted," the company said in the filing. "Only three of our four company-owned restaurants are currently open, and those three company-owned restaurants are only offering food through take-out and delivery as we are prohibited from offering dine-in seating and service at our restaurants. The majority of our franchised locations have been temporarily closed."
Nathan's has a market cap of more than $250 million and sold over 700 million hot dogs last year, according to the company's website.
The company's primary manufacturer is Smithfield Foods, which has had to shut plants due to outbreaks among employees. However, Nathan's said "we do not anticipate that the rapidly evolving COVID-19 outbreak will have a material adverse effect on our supply of hot dogs over the next several months," according to the filing.