Our History
On Tuesday, March 18, 1952, a 23-year-old Marvin Schwan packed his beat-up 1946 Dodge panel van with 14 gallons of his family’s signature ice cream and delivered it to rural families in western Minnesota. At the end of that historic trip, all 14 gallons were sold and the Schwan home-delivery business was born.
Today, The Schwan Food Company is a multi-billion-dollar private company with 22,000 employees worldwide. Based out of Marshall, Minnesota, the company sells fine frozen foods on its traditional delivery trucks, in grocery store freezers, online and in the foodservice industry.
Making acquisitions (1984-1992)
In the 1980s, The Schwan Food Company focused on growth at home and abroad. After creating the Little Charlies® brand in 1983, the company purchased the pizza manufacturer, Sabatasso Foods, in 1986. The remaining Sabatasso plant in Florence, Kentucky, currently produces the Schwan’s Freschetta® pizza line. Also in 1986, the company purchased the Minh Food Corporation, an Asian-foods producer from the Houston, Texas area. The Houston area plants are the largest producers of egg rolls in the world.
In 1989, Schwan gained a foothold in Europe when it opened a plant in Leyland, England. Initial plans called for the sale of frozen pizza to the United Kingdom’s 80,000 pubs. However, the strategy did not work as it did in America and the effort ultimately led to marketing branded frozen pizza through the supermarket frozen section. Today, the Leyland facility produces the Chicago Town™ and Freschetta® brands, which are sold throughout Europe.
