WILBRAHAM — Friendly’s, citing expiring leases and a need to reduce its network in a competitive environment, closed more restaurant locations over the weekend, including one at the Stop & Shop plaza in Framingham, Holden and 20 more, including one in New Hampshire, and others in western and central New York state.

A Waltham location closed last week and was including in the most recent news release from the company bringing the total to 23.

Last week, Dennis Pfaff, chief operating officer of Friendly’s, said he expected more restaurants to close as leases expire. The chain, he said, is shrinking its networked to fit market conditions and shedding stores that that are no longer in high-traffic shopping locations.

The closed locations include 14 restaurants in upstate New York, three in Massachusetts, three in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire and one in Maine. Following these actions, Friendly’s will have 77 corporate-owned restaurants and 97 franchisee-owned restaurants.

Brothers S. Prestley and Curtis Blake founded Friendly’s in 1935 with a single storefront in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood.

Friendly’s headed into this most recent round of shutdowns with 200 locations, including 100 corporately owned and 100 franchised. That’s down from 224 just more than a year ago and 254 when the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2012.

In 1988, when Hershey Foods sold the chain, it had 850 full-service restaurants in 15 states.

“While there’s much work ahead, we are encouraged by the momentum we’re generating. The energy and enthusiasm for the plans we unveiled at our February meeting was both gratifying and inspiring, as we seek to re-energize our marketing efforts with the addition of a new agency roster, refresh our menu, focus on delivery and catering options, and improve the overall restaurant experience for our customers,” CEO CEO George Michel wrote in a letter Monday to franchisees.

Friendly’s owner Sun Capital sold the ice cream manufacturing operation in Wilbraham and supermarket sales business to Dean Foods Co. for $155 million in 2016. Dean Foods, the country’s largest processor and seller of fluid milk, makes Friendly’s ice cream for the restaurants on a 10-year contract.

Friendly's is trying. It's got a revamped menu coming out next month and has started offering delivery with Uber Eats and DoorDash. Friendly's also does catering now, offering meals with ice cream to groups.

Pfaff said that when Friendly’s closes a location, neighboring ones see increased business and profitability.

The 23 closed stores are: