FoodLogistics.com |

Detroit: The Stroh's ice cream plant near Brewery Park is closing in April and production is moving to a facility in Belvidere, IL. Stroh's ice cream has been produced in Detroit ever since the Prohibition era. The Stroh's Brewing Co. began producing ice cream, soda and nonalcoholic beer in Detroit in 1933 and continued to make ice cream after prohibition ended. However the ice cream and soda products kept the company afloat during that entire time.

29 workers are slated to lose their jobs, but another 75 will continue to work in a warehousing and distribution facility in Detroit, notes Marguerite Copel, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Dean Foods Company, which owns the Detroit ice cream facility that produces Stroh's, Melody Farms, Mooney's and Nafziger's brand ice cream.

The Stroh's brand will continue to be sold in the Detroit area and the sales and distribution network will remain unchanged, Copel says. Several Stroh's ice cream parlors still operate in the region.

"It's certainly sad to see it go," says John Stroh III, a fifth-generation member of the family and former CEO of Stroh's Brewing Company. “It's sad to see any factory in Detroit close right now. We are going through a tough time in Detroit right now."