Stroh's Ice Cream
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Stroh's Ice Cream, founded by the Stroh Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan, is currently owned and distributed by Dean Foods of Dallas, TX.
It is essentially a regional brand distributed mainly in the Midwestern United States. This is mainly due to its former owner and namesake company, the Stroh Brewing Company, and the presence it had (and in some cases, like the Detroit area, still has) in this region. Stroh's Ice Cream is positioned as a premium brand, but is for the most part, a lower priced product in comparison to other premium brands such as, Breyers.
[edit] History
The Stroh Brewery Company, like many other alcohol-producers in the United States, was left searching for ways to restructure their companies at the advent of prohibition in the United States in 1920. With the closing of saloons across the nation, ice cream parlors increased in popularity as a new place for the average man to frequent. Julius Stroh, the head of Stroh's Brewery at the time, decided to convert the beer brewing facilities of their factory in Detroit, MI to producing non-alcoholic products such as near beer (beer with its alcohol extracted), birch beer, soft drinks, malt products, ice, and ice cream. At the end of prohibition in America in 1933, the ice cream operation proved to be popular and profitable enough to continue alongside the brewing operation.
In the early 1980s, Stroh's built a new ice cream production facility on Maple Street in Detroit, right down the road from its main brewery, which was demolished in 1985. Stroh's sold the facility in 1989 as a part of corporate restructuring at Stroh's. Stroh's Brewing Company was purchased by Pabst Brewing Company and the Miller Brewing Company in 1999 and moved from Detroit to Milwaukee, WI. Stroh's Ice Cream was run by Melody Farms for several years, all the time keeping the Stroh's name, until that company was purchased by Dean Foods in 2005.[1]
[edit] Today
Stroh's Ice Cream can still be found today, primarilly in the midwest, with a large presence in the Metro Detroit area, for obvious reasons. There are also several Stroh's Ice Cream parlors in the Detroit area that are named for the ice cream they provide (though they were not owned by Stroh itself). The primary ice cream plant remained in Detroit until February of 2007 when it was announced that the facility would be moving to Belvidere, IL, though the Detroit distribution facility would continue to operate.
