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In the wake of Happy Joe’s Pizza filing for bankruptcy and three stores recently closing, the company’s CEO wants to make it clear he’s optimistic about the future.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. It’s for the corporation itself and does not involve franchise-owned stores.

“I just don’t want people to become scared,” CEO Tom Sacco told Local 4 News.

And you can’t blame him for that — the bankruptcy filing is sure to startle customers of the well-known Quad Cities pizza giant.

“Were we losing money in a couple of those restaurants? Absolutely we were.”

That led to a reorganization of company-owned stores like the Rockingham Road location in Davenport and Eldridge.

“It was getting to the point where the other restaurants collectively weren’t generating enough profit to cover the losses from those restaurants,” Sacco said.

Sacco believes this business decision makes the privately held company much stronger.

“We’re going to be here another fifty years. Trust me,” Sacco said. “This company is really solid financially. We’ve got good growth going on in the company. I mean, we signed a franchisee two or three days before we filed bankruptcy.”