Butch Johnson, Tom Vanderwerf and Grant Joy shared memories of working for Schwan’s Home Delivery on Thursday. The home delivery business, rebranded as Yelloh in 2022, is shutting down this month.

MARSHALL — With Yelloh – formerly Schwan’s Home Delivery – shutting down its operations this month, it’s the end of an era for a Marshall business. Schwan’s Home Delivery saw a lot of growth and change over the past 72 years, current and former employees said this week.

“We had tremendous growth for 25, 30 years,” said Grant Joy, retired eastern national sales manager at Schwan’s. “For the 30 years I was there, we had great growth, and we had great people.”

Joy, Tom Vanderwerf and Butch Johnson shared memories of their time with the company on Thursday. Johnson and Vanderwerf each had many years of experience as route sales representatives for Schwan’s Home Delivery and later Yelloh. Joy started out as a delivery route driver for Schwan’s in 1964, and retired as the national sales manager for the eastern U.S. in 1996.

“I was an Iowa farm boy, and my uncle was a (Schwan’s) customer,” Joy said. Joy applied for a job with Schwan’s with encouragement from his uncle. He was hired by Gordy Molitor, and moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to work as a route driver.

“I had never sold nothing in my life, but I was used to hard work and long hours, and that’s what Schwan’s required if you were going to be successful,” he said. “So I just learned from experience and other people helping me, giving me advice.”

Joy would go on to be promoted to be a sales manager in Indiana, a division manager in Iowa, and managed truck routes when Schwan’s expanded into Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi in the 1970s.

“Our name got to be known as it kept growing,” he said. “Some of it grew by word of mouth, and the quality of the product. And people could make good money if they were willing to work.”

“And back in those days, all of our management people for the route systems were hired off routes. We never hired outside sales management people,” Joy said.

Johnson grew up in Cottonwood, and in 1984 moved to Arlington, Texas, to work as a Schwan’s route driver.

“Initially, I just learned my way, because I wasn’t real outgoing. But I just kind of grew into it and enjoyed it,” Johnson said. “I loved the one-on-one aspect of the customer relationship.”

Johnson transferred back to the Marshall area in 2018.

Vanderwerf worked as a route driver for Schwan’s from 1988 to 2013.

“When I first started out, I trained in in Sioux Falls,” he said. Early in his career, Vanderwerf worked to develop a customer base in the central part of Sioux Falls. “It was a great experience,” he said. Later, he moved back to Minnesota to be closer to his family, and worked the Marshall route.

“Back in the 80s, Schwan’s had an image, where it was tough to get a job at Schwan’s. They had so many people that wanted a job at Schwan’s, there weren’t many route driver positions open,” Vanderwerf said.

Vanderwerf said being a Schwan’s driver turned out to be a good living, and he liked the work. “The nice part of it was, my business was me,” he said. “I didn’t have to manage a bunch of employees . . . It was basically all on my shoulders.”

Part of the job was “cold knocking” on doors, Vanderwerf and Johnson said. It led to finding a surprising amount of good customers, Vanderwerf said. “Your best customers were the ones you basically sold yourself to, and became a part of your route.”

Being a route driver meant working long days, often 12 or 14 hours, Joy said. But Johnson and Vanderwerf said customers often treated them like family.

“They would have something to eat for you. They would have a chair for you to sit down in,” Vanderwerf said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that you miss, is the relationships that you have with your customers.”

One big challenge Schwan’s route drivers faced came after a 1994 salmonella outbreak that led to a recall of Schwan’s ice cream.

“We had to ask for the ice cream back,” Vanderwerf said.

“I had so many customers that didn’t want to give their ice cream back,” Johnson said.

“We gave them a full return on their ice cream that they had, whether they had one half-gallon or a dozen. But there was a day that all the drivers worked late at night and tried to recover all the ice cream they could,” Vanderwerf said. “It was kind of a unique situation.”

In spite of the situation, route drivers were treated well by customers, Joy said. “I think we lost probably less than 5% of our customers,” he said.

“It was one of the best-handled recalls probably in the United States . . . it was just really well handled by the corporation,” Joy said.

A lot changed for delivery drivers over the years. Vanderwerf and Johnson said early in their careers, they had to hand-write tickets for orders, and do their own bookkeeping. Some drivers’ wives handled the books, they said.

“Then probably the biggest change after that was down the road, we went to what they call metrics, where the computer decided, in hourly slots, how many customers you could hit, which customers you could hit,” Vanderwerf said.

Joy said customer needs changed over the years as well. “Back in the earlier days, we started out based with farm families,” he said. There was often someone at home to interact with a route driver. By the 1980s, it started getting harder to catch people at home. “In today’s society, people are on the go more, and I think way more housewives are working than it used to be.”

Johnson, Vanderwerf and Joy said founder Marvin Schwan’s vision was a big part of the company’s growth and success.

“Marvin was a very smart man,” Joy said. “He was kind of quiet at times. He gave you a lot of free rein to do your job. He expected results, though.”

Vanderwerf said he had the chance to meet Schwan at a company banquet. “He would ask you a lot of the same questions your depot manager would ask. You know, how’s your day? How’s your sales?” he said. “And the thing about Marvin was, is he wouldn’t ask you a question unless he knew the answer to it. I mean, if you tried to blow smoke at him, he would know or he’d correct you.”

“He was quite the visionary,” Johnson said.