Since December 2008, it has been a subsidiary of Lance Inc., a snack food company, which in turn merged with Snyder's of Hanover to form Snyder's-Lance.

[citation needed] In 1936, Harold and Ruth Swanson began baking soft oatmeal cookies and doughnuts in their home's garage in Battle Creek.

Most varieties were packaged in two stacks of six large cookies and wrapped in clear cellophane with a freshness code printed on the front label.

Many varieties, such as Ruth's Golden Oatmeal, were 'state fair winning' recipes, selected from entries to company-sponsored baking competitions.

Archway's product line quickly expanded to several dozen varieties, including Peanut Jumble, Rocky Road, Mississippi Mud Cake, Fudge Nut Bar, German Chocolate, Black Walnut Ice Box, Date Nut Bar, Iced Spice, New Orleans Cake, Pineapple Filled, Sour Cream, Soft Sugar, and Cookie Jar Hermit.

In 1962, Archway was sold to bakery employee (and Swanson son-in-law) George Markham, who bought back several of the franchises over the next two years, rolling the production into two corporate cookie-manufacturing plants in Ohio and Iowa.

[1] This marked the beginning of the development of Archway Cookies as a cohesive national brand as well as a period of rapid growth for the company.

These changes enabled Archway to participate in national retail promotions and gain stronger shelf position with emerging super-store grocery operators, such as Walmart and Target.

Retail stores would often feature promotional Archway 'Cookie House' displays, built with hundreds or thousands of packages of holiday cookies.

As a result, Archway Cookies had become a favorite of health-conscious cookie-eaters across the country, driving low-fat and fat-free sales increases of more than 170 percent in 1994.

SFC was concentrating on their baking business and bought Archway Cookies along with San Diego Bread Company for more than US$100+ million.