Yelloh, once known as Schwan's Home Delivery, closes due to 'insurmountable business challenges'

Yelloh started out as Schwan’s home delivery business
in 1952. (Yelloh photo via Twin Cities Business)

After years of decline, the frozen food delivery icon formerly called Schwan's closed its doors after 72 years of service. The company's direct-to-consumer delivery model increased its popularity among rural communities, where its signature yellow trucks became synonymous with good people and food. "At its peak, the company delivered meals and ice cream across 48 states," reports Aimee Ortiz of The New York Times. "But critics and experts said the company became frozen in time, ceding ground to competitors and modernity."

The company's setbacks began in the late 1980s, "with fewer people home as drivers came, the relationships between drivers and customers that had been built over decades began to diminish," Ortiz explains. "Then came membership stores like Costco, which could compete on frozen food price and quality, and on top of that regulatory changes added restrictions to their truck operations."

In 2019, Schwan's sold a group of its frozen food grocery store brands in a deal that forced the company to relinquish the "Schwan's" name and suppliers. The company renamed its service "Yelloh," but many loyal consumers were put off by the new name. "The 2022 rebranding was a failure on multiple levels, said Ken Moskowitz, who is the founder of Ad Zombies and has been a marketer for 40 years," Ortiz reports. "By changing the company’s name, decision-makers 'threw away all that history,' Mr. Moskowtiz said."

The loss of Yelloh's food suppliers also cut into its customer base. "The home delivery service carried Schwan’s items until early 2024, but soon enough customers lost access to many of their favorite entrees, snacks and desserts, including the Schwan’s ice cream that had made the company famous," Ortiz explains. Ed Johnson, a retail and consumer products expert, said "that he could not speak directly to what exactly caused Yelloh’s demise, but that it’s 'very hard to sustain that business in a world where there’s more choice.'"

Yelloh released a statement that explained the closure was due to “'multiple insurmountable business challenges,” including “economic and market forces, as well as changing consumer lifestyles,'” Ortiz reports. "The closure means that about 1,100 people across 13 states are out of a job."