Editing Stouffer's (section)

== History ==
The Stouffer family business traces its roots to 1898, when James B. Stouffer and his son Abraham E. Stouffer started the Stouffer's Cottage Creamery Company<ref name="ClevelandDirectory1898"/> at the Sheriff Street Market in Cleveland. In 1901, James's son Abraham E. Stouffer (age 26) became vice-president of the company.<ref name="ClevelandDirectory1901"/><ref name="ClevelandDirectory1903"/>

In 1905, the Stouffer family established the Medina County Creamery Company in Medina, Ohio.<ref name="ColdStorage1905"/>

James B. Stouffer died on November 23, 1908, at age 62 in [[Orlando, Florida]], and Abraham took over the running of the Medina County Creamery.
 
On January 11, 1912, the Medina County Creamery Company filed a change of address to Cleveland.<ref name="Graves1913"/> By 1914, the company had expanded and opened a branch of the Medina County Creamery Company in [[Detroit]]. By the mid-1910s, the creamery claimed to be the largest manufacturer and wholesaler of creamery products in the city of Cleveland, supplied by over 1,500 farmers.<ref name="MedinaSquare"/>

In early 1920, Stouffer's lucrative creamery drew the attention of the Fairmont Creamery (now Fairmont Foods), the largest creamery company in the United States. In December 1920, Abraham Stouffer announced that the Medina County Creamery Company would merge with Fairmont Creamery Company of Omaha, Nebraska, through stock ownership.<ref name="Medina1920"/> As part of the merger, Abraham Stouffer would oversee the Cleveland plant until 1922.<ref name="Produce1920"/><ref name="Creamery1921"/>

In 1922, Abraham Stouffer and his wife Lena Mahala Bigelow took over one of the company's milk stands, on the lower level of the [[Cleveland Arcade]], and converted it into a restaurant serving buttermilk, sandwiches, and Lena Stouffer's homemade [[Dutch apple pie]]<ref name="Stouffer"/> (credited by some as the reason for the almost instant success of the restaurant).<ref name="STOUFFER FOODS">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=SF3|title=STOUFFER FOODS |date=July 22, 1997|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|publisher=A joint effort by Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society|access-date=March 24, 2013}}</ref>

Abraham had reportedly had the idea for the "Stouffer Lunch System" before 1920.<ref name="Time1940"/> They opened the first restaurant, called the Stouffer Lunch, in 1924.<ref name="IDCH1994"/> As time went on, the couple continued the program of expansion with the assistance of their sons [[Vernon Stouffer|Vernon]],<ref name="VernonUH"/> a graduate of the [[Wharton School of Finance]], and Gordon, who together led the reorganization of the business, taking it public as the [[Stouffer Corporation]] in 1929 with Abraham as chairman of the board.<ref name="Stouffer"/>

The year 1929 also marked the beginning of the company's effort to establish locations outside of Ohio, with the opening of a restaurant in [[Detroit, Michigan]], and another in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]].{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} After Abraham's death in 1936 the company continued its program of expansion by opening its first restaurant in [[New York City]],{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} and eventually began a program of [[diversification (marketing strategy)|diversification]], entering the frozen food business in 1946.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} In 1956 the company was formally renamed Stouffer Foods Corporation.

In 1960 Stouffer purchased its first hotel, the Anacapri Inn of [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida]], and, by the end of that year, the company was composed of three divisions: Stouffer Foods Corporation, Stouffer Hotels Corporation,<ref name="LATimes1998"/> and Stouffer Restaurants Corporation.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} In 1961, Stouffer's opened two short-lived automated vending restaurants.<ref name="Whitaker2015"/>
Stouffer's took over this complex of restaurants with the shared kitchen (Plaza Pavilion). In 1962 Stouffer's Disneyland operated the Plaza Pavilion Restaurant,<ref name="Strodder2012"/><ref name="Weiss2020"/> the [[Tahitian Terrace]],<ref name="Weiss2020"/> and the French Market Restaurant.<ref name="MiceChat2008"/> As of 2007, Stouffer's operated the Liberty Tree Tavern in [[Walt Disney World]]'s Liberty Square.<ref name="Mongello2007"/>

In 1967, the Stouffer Corporation was purchased by [[Litton Industries]] for [[vertical integration]] purposes, when that company had a large share of the [[microwave oven]] market,<ref name="OHC"/> but in 1973, Litton sold Stouffer to [[Nestlé]]. In 1993, as part of a refocusing of the company on food products,<ref name="McDowell1993"/> Nestlé announced its intention to sell [[Stouffer Hotels]] to the New World Development Company (which at that time owned the [[Renaissance Hotels|Renaissance]] and [[Ramada]] hotel brands). The transaction was complete, and the [[Stouffer Hotel]] brand was retired, by the end of 1996. As custodian, Primordial acquired the rights to bring Stouffer Hotels back in 2013. <ref name="OHC"/>