Friendly's is one of America's most beloved brands. But it almost didn't make it out of its infancy after the founders closed down the chain — and went off to war.
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00:00Friendly's is one of America's most beloved brands, but it almost didn't make it out of
00:05its infancy after the founders closed down the chain and went off to war.
00:10Friendly Ice Cream was founded by brothers Presley and Curtis Blake in Springfield, Massachusetts,
00:15in 1935. The Great Depression was still the nation's grim reality at the time, but with
00:19a $547 loan from their parents, 20-year-old Presley and 18-year-old Curtis Blake opened
00:25their ice cream business.
00:27The reason that we got into this is because we couldn't get a job."
00:32They called it Friendly so that customers would know that welcoming service accompanied
00:36the ice cream.
00:37The Blakes' business model was simple. One brother would make the ice cream while the
00:40other served customers.
00:42Neighboring drugstores and soda shops sold two scoops or a double-dip ice cream cone
00:46for a dime back then. The Blakes sold them for a nickel.
00:49When Friendly Ice Cream opened its doors on a summer evening in 1935, the line was about
00:55They stayed open until midnight and sold 552 cones for a takeaway of $27.60.
01:01Friendly Ice Cream quickly became a popular spot in Springfield. Despite his youth, Presley
01:06Blake was a shrewd businessman who was all for efficiency and fiercely anti-debt.
01:10For the first five years, the Blake brothers shared a used 1928 Ford Model A and rarely
01:15took time off.
01:16When customers began suggesting that Friendly sell food as well as ice cream, the Blakes
01:20listened.
01:22With the original Springfield location turning a profit, Presley and Curtis Blake opened
01:25a second Friendly Ice Cream in 1940 in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
01:30In tandem with the new location, the Blakes broadened Friendly Ice Cream's menu to include
01:34sandwiches such as the Patty Melt and the Grilled Cheese, both of which are still on
01:37the menu today.
01:38With two locations and more variety, Friendly Ice Cream was on track to become a profitable
01:42chain. And then, World War II changed everything.
01:46In 1943, two years after the United States entered World War II, Friendly Ice Cream closed
01:50up entirely. The Blakes posted a sign on the shop's windows saying Friendly Ice Cream
01:54would reopen when America won the war.
01:57To help make that a reality, Curtis Blake joined the military, and Presley Blake worked
02:01with Westinghouse Corp.
02:02With the war's end in 1945, Friendly returned, adding ice cream delivery trucks a year later
02:08to cater to the booming new suburban market. Shopping plazas became more widespread, and
02:12Friendly Ice Cream was the perfect fit. Between 1945 and 1952, the chain grew by two locations
02:18per year.
02:20Friendly Ice Cream's immediate post-war success invigorated its founders to enact a robust
02:24expansion plan. Curtis Blake planned and oversaw the building of every new Friendly location,
02:29while Presley Blake took the lead on the financial side.
02:31And they kept everything in the family. When the Blakes led Friendly, not a single location
02:35was franchised out.
02:36In the early 1950s, the Blakes opened a manufacturing plant, where all of the ice cream, syrups,
02:41sundae toppings, and sandwich ingredients used at Friendly Ice Cream establishments
02:45were processed.
02:46In 1960, Friendly Ice Cream's headquarters in the plant moved to Wilbraham, Massachusetts,
02:51and expansion continued. By 1974, the chain had 500 units to its name and a second manufacturing
02:57plant in Troy, Ohio.
03:00By 1979, Friendly Ice Cream was thriving, so much so that Hershey was interested in
03:05acquiring the company. After 44 years in the biz, the brothers sold to Hershey to the tune
03:09of $162 million.
03:12Presley Blake was 65 when Friendly was sold. Curtis Blake was 63.
03:16By then, there were roughly 600 Friendly Ice Cream locations for Hershey to assume.
03:20Hershey embraced the new ownership. Its legendary candies became standard fare in Friendly Sundaes,
03:25something fans of the chain have come to count on. Hershey's capital also helped the restaurant
03:29to grow at a quicker pace than ever, and the new owners also took to renovating some of
03:33the older Friendly locations. It was an auspicious new chapter.
03:37Under new ownership, Friendly continued to expand its reaches as a family-oriented chain.
03:42Yet Friendly didn't prosper for long under the Hershey banner. Cracks began to show,
03:46perhaps for the first time, in Friendly's business operations.
03:49Despite new locations continuing to open, in the late 1980s, profits fell for the first
03:54time in the restaurant's history. In 1988, Hershey decided that ownership of the restaurant
03:58chain detracted from the brand's focus on the sweets and snacks segment.
04:02Friendly was sold to Tennessee Restaurant Company, or TRC, for approximately $375 million.
04:08TRC quickly made changes. The restaurant name was changed to Friendly's, and that was just
04:13the beginning of some serious streamlining. Over 100 Friendly's locations were slated
04:17for closure, the majority in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Business operations were still
04:22going strong in Friendly's home base of New England, though, for the time being.
04:26Through TRC, Friendly's new owner was Donald N. Smith, a businessman whose expertise was
04:31reviving tired restaurant chains. Smith understood that Friendly's early capitalization on prepackaged
04:36ice cream, which was a smooth operation thanks to the manufacturing plant Friendly's had
04:40been running since the 1950s, was helping the chain stand out. Hershey tested the waters
04:45of putting more Friendly ice cream novelties in grocery stores, but Smith wanted to expand
04:49the supermarket market. And in 1989, that's exactly what Friendly's did.
04:53The full-scale launch into the frozen food aisle included more than just half gallons
04:56of Friendly's ice cream. Pre-made sundaes, ice cream cakes, and inventive treats like
05:01the Jubilee Roll were featured prominently in grocery store freezers all over the East
05:05Coast.
05:06Friendly's was also able to effectively keep up with frozen treat trends. As consumer demand
05:09for lower-fat ice cream and frozen yogurt grew, Friendly's produced and sold those items.
05:14Even as the restaurant itself waned in popularity, Friendly's ice cream remained a reliable retail
05:18item for the brand.
05:20Most of Smith's rebranding efforts, however, didn't pay off. In 1992, Consumer Reports
05:25placed Friendly's last amongst 14 family restaurant chains, noting that customers who were surveyed
05:30expressed disappointment in Friendly's food quality, dining atmosphere, and service. In
05:35response, restaurants continued to open, existing ones were renovated, and upscale menu
05:40additions were introduced. Profits slowly ticked up, but so did the company's debt.
05:44In 1997, Friendly's went public on the stock market, a move TRC hoped would ease the mounting
05:49debt.
05:50Friendly's also began franchising in 1988. Co-founder Presley Blake had been keeping
05:54tabs on Friendly's from a distance, and was seething with anger over how Smith and TRC
05:58were running the venture he still referred to as his baby. Though he was in his late
06:0280s, Blake bought $2 million in Friendly's stock and became the company's largest shareholder.
06:07He then sued Smith, claiming that his flagrant personal use of the corporate jet and considerable
06:12stake in another restaurant company were against the best interests of Friendly's shareholders.
06:16A bitter legal battle was waged over the course of several years, ultimately forcing TRC to
06:21sell to SunCapital in 2007 for $337.2 million.
06:26When SunCapital affiliate Freeze Operations Holding Corp. acquired Friendly's in 2007,
06:32it appointed John Maguire as the new CEO and took the company private to deal with Friendly's
06:36financial dramas. Maguire quickly realized that Friendly's staunchly retro stance was
06:41damaging their image. He decided it was time to start closing units and selling off real
06:45estate. Friendly's also attempted to revamp their menu with more modern dining options.
06:49I'm John Maguire, CEO of Friendly's. Like you, I grew up with Friendly's. And I'm happy
06:55to say we're back with a new menu."
06:59But those efforts were undercut by their outdated locations. In October 2011, Friendly's filed
07:04for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming the recession and the rising cost of cream. A total of 424
07:10restaurants stayed open while the company worked through financial restructuring.
07:13A key factor in Friendly's slow and steady growth in the mid-20th century was its co-founder's
07:18insistence that Friendly's produced and owned all aspects of the business, from the restaurant
07:22buildings to the plants that manufactured the ice cream, to the ice cream itself. So
07:26when Friendly's sold its ice cream to dairy manufacturer Dean Foods in 2016, it truly
07:31felt like the end of an era. Dean Foods, based in Dallas, Texas, was the largest dairy processor
07:36in the U.S. at the time of the sale. The company purchased all of Friendly's manufacturing
07:40and retail operations for $155 million in cash.
07:44When Dean Foods took over, Friendly's ice cream sales were up 105 percent, not too shabby
07:48for a company that had filed for bankruptcy just five years earlier. Dean Foods agreed
07:52to operate out of Friendly's existing ice cream manufacturing facilities and retain
07:56the employees who worked there. By offloading the ice cream's manufacturing and retail duties
08:01to Dean Foods, Friendly's could continue to focus on improving its restaurants. About
08:05100 units closed during the bankruptcy, leaving Friendly's with 254 locations as of September
08:112016.
08:12Friendly's financial well-being had been shaky for decades when COVID-19 wreaked irreparable
08:17havoc on the global restaurant industry. The chain did its best, but in November 2020,
08:21it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a second time. Friendly's was down to 130 restaurants
08:26at the time of the filing, and over the next two years would be forced to close an additional
08:3023 locations. At the same time, Dean Foods, the company making the ice cream, also went
08:35bankrupt.
08:36The parent company of the Friendly's ice cream plant in Wilbraham has declared bankruptcy.
08:42Dean Foods announced plans to sell all of its assets."
08:45Worsening the situation was the depressing deal Friendly's made to be acquired by Amici
08:50Partners Group, LLC, an affiliate of Bricks Holdings, for just $2 million. The low price
08:55was to account for Friendly's huge debts. Lenders were willing to waive $88 million
09:00secured debt in order to close the deal in January 2021.
09:04Friendly's co-founder, Presley Blake, lived to see the sad decline of his creation, passing
09:08away at the age of 106 just one month after Friendly's was sold. Curtis Blake was spared
09:13the news. He had passed away in 2019 at age 102.
09:17With Friendly's future on the ropes, new owners Bricks Holdings planned for yet another brand
09:21refresh. In 2022, the plan was to play upon Friendly's legacy as a classic American eatery
09:27while sprucing up the menu with foods that would appeal to a younger crowd.
09:30That meant shrinking Friendly's new menu from eight pages to two, tossing out tired items,
09:35and introducing playful picks like the Doritos Cool Ranch Chopped Cheeseburger, along with
09:39new ice cream flavors.
09:41"...Friendly's has introduced the limited edition flavor Nor'easter Pothole."
09:46A rewards program was launched, as were company-wide events like a Fribble giveaway. Some of the
09:50new foods came off as gimmicky, but at least Friendly's was trying to keep it current.
09:54It even tapped the Jonas Brothers to each design their own limited-edition Friendly's
09:58Sundaes in honor of the trio's 2023 world tour. In April 2024, Friendly's announced
10:03that a new late-night value menu would be offered in all of its restaurants, giving
10:07the chain a fighting chance to compete in the after-hours fast food market.
10:11It's been a bumpy ride for Friendly's, but if the recent past is any indicator of how
10:15the future will go, resurgence is in the air. Yes, there were more closures in 2024, which
10:20hit the Northeast, once home to Friendly's steadiest customer base. Yet as one Friendly's
10:25door closes, another opens, this time in Florida, where fresh approaches are keeping hope alive.
10:30A new Friendly's that opened in Orlando, Florida, features a more open ice cream counter, complete
10:34with a Fribble wall where kids can customize milkshakes to their heart's content. Sundae
10:38toppings are displayed in clear jars, like they were in Friendly's ice cream window days,
10:42and the location is just minutes away from Walt Disney World.
10:45Friendly's current CEO, Sharif Mityas, is optimistic that the more interactive space
10:50will breathe new life into the 89-year-old brand's.
10:53Friendly's is still leaning into gimmicky menu items, like an ice cream sundae surrounded
10:56by a wreath of french fries, as the combination of sweet and salty reportedly did well in
11:00testing, but the menu hasn't been totally overrun by fads. Overall, Friendly's is more
11:04mindful about growing slowly but surely, a business practice the company's founders perfected
11:09all those decades ago.
11:10Just over 100 Friendly's stores remain in business. About 20 percent have undergone
11:14a recent remodel, with the remaining locations expected to get their renovations over the
11:18next year. Profitability, not expansion, is the primary objective for Friendly's moving
11:23forward.
11:24Here's hoping they are able to save this home of classic Americana.