Monday, October 07, 2024

Frozen meal delivery service Schwan's, will be permanently parking its yellow trucks this fall, after 72 years


Founded in Minnesota in 1952, Schwan's started off delivering ice cream via yellow trucks right to customers' doorsteps. 

On March 18, 1952, in Marshall, Minnesota, 23-year-old Marvin Schwan climbed into the 1946 Dodge panel van he’d recently bought. Marvin's parents had started the Schwan’s Dairy a few years before and their brand of ice cream became popular locally, so Marvin wanted to try sell his family’s ice cream to local farmers. Marvin, a natural salesman - genuine and unassuming, filled his van with 14 gallons of ice cream. He drove north out of Marshall, into the patchwork quilt of farms and fields that had just been planted that spring, and started knocking on doors. By the end of the day, Marvin had sold all the ice cream.

They later expanded to a wide variety of frozen foods like pizza and pasta, among others. Schwan's was the original food-delivery service, but way more personal that Uber Eats. Everyone knew their local "Schwan's guy."

Schwan’s Co was sold to South Korea’s largest food manufacturer for $1.8 billion for an 80 percent stake in Schwan’s and gain control of its businesses. 

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