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Updated: 30 min ago

14 workers in Hermon lose jobs as Midwestern food-delivery company shuts down

Photo / Courtesy, Yelloh A photo provided by Yelloh shows one of its distinctive yellow freezer trucks, similar to the ones that have delivered frozen food for decades.
By William Hall

Fourteen Maine employees of a frozen-food delivery service, Yelloh, are losing their jobs as the Minnesota-based company prepares to park its trucks and close the 72-year-old business.

The affected employees work out of Yelloh's distribution facility in Hermon, according to a company notice filed with the Maine Department of Labor last week under the federal Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act.

All 1,100 employees of Yelloh will be laid off over the next two months, according to a news release. The company said the closing is necessary due to "multiple insurmountable business challenges, including economic and market forces, as well as changing consumer lifestyles."

Michael Ziebell, a member of the Yelloh board of directors, said, "The current Yelloh team has worked hard against external headwinds such as the nationwide staffing challenges and crushing food supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic.

"These challenges, combined with changing consumer lifestyles and competitive pressures that have been building for over 20 years, made success very difficult."

Digital shopping, he said, has replaced personal, at-the-door customer interaction that was the hallmark of Yelloh, formerly known as Schwan's Home Delivery.

Founded in 1952 by Marvin Schwan and headquartered in Marshall, Minn., the company at first delivered its own ice cream to rural parts of western Minnesota.

Over time, Schwan's added other items, such as ready-to-heat meals and frozen pizza, and grew to provide nationwide service with what it said was the country’s largest fleet of freezer trucks.

In 2019, Schwan family members sold most of the company to a South Korean food conglomerate, but retained control of the home delivery service. In 2022, that business was rebranded as Yelloh, a reference to its iconic yellow trucks.

(Yelloh should not be confused with Yellow Corp., a Nashville-based trucking company that last year declared bankruptcy and laid off 77 Mainers.)

In 2023, Yelloh downsized with the closure of about 90 distribution centers and the layoff of 750 employees. At the time, Yelloh said it would concentrate on operations in 18 states, including Maine. Four employees at a Yelloh facility in Gorham were laid off.

The company is now operated by Cygnus Home Service LLC, an independent business formed by members of the Schwan family.

All customer operations are scheduled to end Nov. 8.

Remarking Sept. 23 on the end of the company, CEO Bernardo Santana said, "It’s with heavy hearts that we made the difficult decision to cease operations of Yelloh. We are thankful to our many loyal customers and hard-working employees for everything they have done to support us.

"I am deeply grateful for our employees’ tireless and bold efforts, and our customers’ dedication. It has been our utmost pleasure and honor to serve our customers their favorite meals and frozen treats.”

Attempts to reach Yelloh for additional comment were not immediately successful.

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