When the Blake brothers finally retired, Friendly’s cycled through a series of owners until 2007, when it was acquired by the private-equity firm Sun Capital. Under Capital’s ownership, Friendly’s struggled. Among other things, the private-equity firm piled debt onto the business, and required it to sell and lease back the property for some 160

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Sun Capital was able to reacquire Friendly’s free of its pension obligations, without spending anything more than the money it had already lent out. Pensioners lost in this process because their payments were at risk of being cut. Many of the chain’s existing employees lost as well: 63 restaurants closed as part of the bankruptcy process. The Blake

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The firm became synonymous with zero-based budgeting, where every expense must be justified from scratch. To 3G, it was a principle of ownership: Spend every dollar as if it were your own. The business press fell on it. “Squeezing Heinz.” “Chainsaw Capitalism.” Here were investors grounding corporate jets, unplugging mini-fridges, making executives... See more