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.
Endings and beginnings (1993-1998)
On May 9, 1993, Marvin Schwan, the founder of The Schwan Food Company, died at the age of 64 as the result of a heart attack. Schwan employees were stunned at the news. With one great idea and a lot of hard work and dedication, Marvin grew a business from a 1946 Dodge panel van and a failing 1950s dairy to a multibillion-dollar company. Newspapers throughout the country carried Marvin’s obituary because it was important news to business leaders throughout the world. Some reporters labeled him “The Emperor of Ice Cream.”
After Marvin’s passing, his older brother, Alfred, was named as the company’s next president. Alfred had served as the company’s head of manufacturing since he joined the company in 1964 and was intimately involved in all aspects of the business. Alfred led the company with his strong, enthusiastic presence, guiding the business through hard and uncertain times. When asked how to be successful at Schwan, Alfred quoted Marvin: “Work hard, help one another, grow in every way, be enthusiastic and have integrity in everything that you do.” That statement became the basis for the company’s current core values of hard work, growth, enthusiasm, integrity and helping one another.
Other important developments during this time include the introduction of Freschetta® pizza in 1996, the acquisition of La Roue du Pay d’auge, a French producer of wood-fired pizza and frozen and chilled lasagna, and the 1998 opening of a new pizza plant in Osterweddingen, Germany.
