Pizza Huts starting to reopen in Northwest Indiana a year after sudden closures

Some of the Pizza Hut restaurants that abruptly closed last year in Northwest Indiana are reopening.

The Pizza Hut at 7878 Ridge Road in Hobart reopened late last week, more than a year after 15 Northwest Indiana Pizza Huts abruptly shuttered after the franchisee EYM Group collapsed. An employee said a new ownership group planned to reopen a Hammond location within a month and Merrillville and Winfield Pizza Huts shortly after that.

Restaurants in Munster, Hammond, Griffith, Schererville, Merrillville, Crown Point, Hobart, Lowell, Cedar Lake, Winfield, Valparaiso, Chesterton, Portage and Michigan City all shuttered last year after EYM Group defaulted on its franchise payments, failing to make more than $5.6 million in payments owed.

The franchisee sued Plano, Texas-based Pizza Hut, char