Friendly's restaurant chain files for bankruptcy amid COVID-19 crunch

(Friendly's is a restaurant chain on the United States' East Coast. It has 10,000 employees. A total of 167 Friendly's are in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont)

Friendly’s, the iconic East Coast restaurant chain famous for its ice cream, has filed for bankruptcy after the coronavirus pandemic upended its turnaround plans.

The Massachusetts-based company announced the filing late Sunday alongside plans to sell itself to restaurant investment firm Amici Partners Group for about $2 million. Friendly’s said it expects almost all of its 130 locations to stay open through the bankruptcy process.

The 85-year-old chain had been working for about two years to revitalize its business by closing unprofitable restaurants, revamping its menu and focusing more on takeout and delivery — but the pandemic brought those efforts to a screeching halt, according to Friendly’s bankruptcy filings in Delaware.

Despite the financial strain, all of Friendly’s nearly 1,700 employees are expected to keep their jobs after the chain is sold to Amici.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/02/friendlys-restaurant-chain-files-for-bankruptcy/