Pursuits

Friendly Ice Cream Files for Court Protection From Creditors

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By Tiffany Kary, Dawn McCarty and Michael Bathon

October 6, 2011 at 4:13 AM UTC

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Friendly Ice Cream Corp., the 76-year-old restaurant chain known for its ice cream and hamburgers, filed for bankruptcy protection four years after being acquired by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc.

The company, which opened at the height of the Great Depression with one shop in Springfield, Massachusetts, plans to sell itself at an auction with a Sun Capital affiliate as the lead bidder, according to papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.