Seattle Coffee parent sued

Three shareholder lawsuits have been filed against AFC Enterprises Inc., parent company of Seattle Coffee Co., which does business as Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia.

The class-action lawsuits allege that Atlanta-based AFC misrepresented its performance to stockholders. Earlier this week, the company said it would need to restate earnings for 2001 and much of 2002, and would possibly need to restate 2000 earnings as well. How inventory was accounted for at Seattle Coffee is one of the issues that triggered the restatement.

AFC stock tanked after the announcement late Monday, sinking from around $17 per share to less than $12, before rallying back to nearly $14 per share later in the week.

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