End of an era as food-delivery service known for its yellow trucks lays off WA drivers
A familiar frozen food home-delivery service that changed its name last year has announced it is eliminating nearly 60 workers in Washington state.
Yelloh, formerly Schwan’s Home Delivery, submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification to the state’s Employment Security Department on Monday.
According to the announcement, 58 workers, including in Tacoma, were set to be eliminated starting Oct. 20. The move was listed as a permanent closure on ESD’s site.
Jennifer Rock Beers is director of communications and public relations for Yelloh. She told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that “unfortunately, these locations were no longer profitable to continue with our yellow truck service.”
The company plans to “transition how we serve Bellingham, Everett, Montesano, Richland, Spokane and Tacoma, and our customers can still get their favorite items by using our app, ordering online, or by calling us to receive our products via UPS,” she wrote.
“This was not an easy decision for our company, because we cherish our drivers and the special role they play in our local communities,” she wrote. “We are taking care of our team with appropriate notice and pay in accordance with the WARN act, and team members can apply for other open roles within the company.”
In 2018, the family behind the Schwan’s Co., based in Minneapolis, reached an agreement to sell a majority stake of the company to CJ CheilJedang (CJCJ), of Seoul, South Korea.
The Schwan family announced it would retain 20 percent ownership in the businesses sold to CJCJ and retained 100 percent ownership in Schwan’s Home Service, Inc., a legacy home-delivery business that Marvin Schwan launched in 1952.
Last year, Schwan’s Home Delivery announced it would change its name to Yelloh, stating in a release that the change paid homage to its “70-year history of personal connections in communities around the country and the brand’s iconic yellow delivery vehicles.”
The company sells ice cream, pizza, premium meats and seafood, breakfast items, desserts and more direct to customers. As of 2022, the home delivery service said it had 4,000 employees and more than 300 local neighborhood centers nationwide delivering to “millions of customers each year.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 9:54 AM.
