WILBRAHAM — Friendly’s announced Monday it has sold the ice cream manufacturing arm of its business to Dean Foods Co. of Dallas for $155 million.
Friendly’s Ice Cream LLC, with headquarters in Wilbraham, will continue to own the company’s restaurant business.
Dean Foods will take over the manufacturing and distribution of packaged ice cream products that are sold in over 8,000 supermarkets and other retail locations in the U.S., according to a Monday release.
Dean Foods owns many national dairy brands, including New England subsidiary Garelick Farms.
The company will continue to produce the ice cream in the Wilbraham factory that has produced Friendly’s products for nearly five decades, according to the statement.
“The Friendly’s brand will be a catalyst in our strategy to grow our existing ice cream business and branded portfolio,” Gregg Tanner, cheif executive of Dean Foods said in a release.
In the last five years, the Friendly’s retail ice cream business has grown 105 percent, with $166 million in net sales last year, according to the release.
As part of the deal, Dean Foods also acquired the Friendly’s trademark and intellectual property associated with the ice cream business. The Friendly’s restaurant company will license the trademark, according to the release.
Friendly’s in 2011 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That year and the next year it closed about 100 stores before exiting bankruptcy protection. Its downtown Northampton location closed in 2014.
The company was started in Springfield in 1935. Today in Hampshire County, it has restaurants in Florence, South Hadley and Hadley and more than 260 locations across the country.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com.