Blue Bell Creameries facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Ice cream |
| Founded | 1907 Brenham, Texas, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Brenham, Texas, U.S. |
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Key people
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Ricky Dickson, President |
| Revenue | Over US$500 million (2018) Estimated US$680 million (2014) |
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Number of employees
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Over 1,000 (2018) |
Blue Bell Creameries is a famous American company that makes delicious ice cream. It started way back in 1907 in a small town called Brenham, Texas. For a long time, they made both ice cream and butter for people nearby.
Later, they stopped making butter and focused only on ice cream. They grew to sell their ice cream all over Texas and then across the Southern United States. Their main office is still in Brenham, at what they call the "Little Creamery." The Kruse family has been in charge of the company since 1919. In 2015, Blue Bell was the second-biggest ice cream maker in the whole United States!
Contents
The Story of Blue Bell Ice Cream
The company began as the Brenham Creamery Company in 1907. It bought extra cream from local dairy farmers. Then, it sold butter to people in Brenham, Texas. This town is about 70 miles (113 km) northwest of Houston. In 1911, the creamery started making small amounts of ice cream.
By 1919, the company was having money problems. The leaders hired E.F. Kruse, a 23-year-old former teacher. He took over on April 1, 1919. Kruse did not take a salary for his first few months. This helped the company avoid more debt.
Under his leadership, the company made more ice cream. They sold it in the Brenham area and soon made a profit. In 1930, Kruse suggested renaming the company. He named it Blue Bell Creameries after his favorite wildflower, the Texas bluebell. Like ice cream, this flower grows well in summer.
Until 1936, the creamery made ice cream in small batches. They could make a 10-US-gallon (38 L) batch every 20 minutes. In 1936, the company bought its first continuous ice cream machine. This machine could make 80 US gallons (300 L) of ice cream per hour. The ice cream flowed out of a spout into containers of any size.
E.F. Kruse passed away in 1951. His sons, Ed and Howard, took over the company. By the 1960s, the company stopped making butter completely. They focused only on ice cream. For many years, they only sold ice cream in Brenham. Then, they started selling it in the Houston area. They soon expanded across most of Texas, including Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and Austin.
By the end of the 1970s, sales had grown four times bigger. By 1980, the creamery was making over 10 million gallons (37.85 million liters) of ice cream each year. They were earning $30 million annually.
In 1989, Blue Bell began selling ice cream in Oklahoma. Throughout the 1990s, they expanded across the South Central and Southern United States. They reached cities like New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi. In 1992, Blue Bell built a new factory in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Four years later, in 1996, they opened a third factory in Sylacauga, Alabama. This factory is southeast of Birmingham. They then expanded into Atlanta and Miami.
Blue Bell expands slowly and carefully. They research each new market. They make sure all new employees are well-trained. This helps them keep their product quality high. Blue Bell often expands to new markets in March each year. For example, they came to Colorado on March 14, 2011. They expanded to Virginia in 2013 and Las Vegas in 2014. When they expand, they build or buy distribution centers. These centers serve areas within a 75-mile (121 km) radius.
In 2015, Blue Bell had to recall some products. This led to them stopping production for a while. They also had to reduce their sales area. After cleaning their factories, they started making ice cream again three months later. They slowly brought their products back to stores. Their sales area was reduced to 21 states for a time.
In July 2019, Blue Bell faced a problem that became very popular online. A teenager licked an ice cream tub at a Walmart in Lufkin, Texas. She then put it back in the freezer. She was later arrested. After this, other people copied her. Some of them were also arrested. These events caused strong negative reactions. People said that tampering with food like this is dangerous for public health.
In mid-March 2024, Blue Bell expanded to St. Louis, MO and East St. Louis, IL.
How Blue Bell Works
As of 2015, the company had three factories. The biggest one is in Brenham. The other two are in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Sylacauga, Alabama. Before the 2015 recalls, Blue Bell had 50 sales and distribution centers. These are called branches. They were spread across 23 states. These places employed 2,800 people in total. About 850 of these employees worked in Brenham. In 2006, the company's yearly sales were over $400 million.
Blue Bell controls every part of its business. This helps them make sure their products are high quality. They also use the freshest ingredients. The Kruse family says, "the milk we use is so fresh it was grass only yesterday." The company uses milk from about 60,000 cows every day. The cream used for production is always less than 24 hours old.
All ice cream making and packaging happens in Blue Bell factories. These factories can produce over 100 pints per minute. The drivers who deliver the ice cream personally put it on store shelves. This ensures the ice cream is handled correctly.
According to data from Statista, Blue Bell was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States in 2014. This is true even though other store brands sold more when combined. Blue Bell mainly sells its ice cream in the Southern United States. They have sold it as far west as Las Vegas, as far north as Indianapolis and Denver, and as far east as Richmond, Virginia. This area is only about 20% of the United States. In comparison, Blue Bell's top four competitors sell their products in 100% of the United States.
To become one of the top three ice cream makers, Blue Bell has often been the top seller in the markets it enters. For example, in its home state of Texas, the company has 52% of the market. Within five months of entering Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the company had 35% of the ice cream market. People outside the sales area can have the ice cream shipped to them. Former President George W. Bush often had Blue Bell ice cream sent to Camp David when he was president. In 2006 and 2012, astronauts on the International Space Station also received Blue Bell ice cream. This was "to help out (the crew's) happiness quotient."
Blue Bell Products
Blue Bell makes over 250 different frozen products. Of these, 66 are ice cream flavors. Twenty flavors are available all year. Another two to three dozen flavors are offered only during certain seasons. Besides ice cream, the company also makes frozen yogurt, sherbet, and various frozen treats on a stick.
Unlike some other companies, Blue Bell still sells true half-gallon (64 fl oz/1.89 L) containers. Many competitors have made their standard containers smaller, to 48-56 fluid ounces (1.42-1.66 L). Blue Bell often mentions this in its advertisements.
The company introduced its most popular flavor, Homemade Vanilla, in 1969. Blue Bell was also the first company to make the flavor cookies 'n cream for everyone to buy. At one time, the company used Oreo cookies from Nabisco for its cookies 'n cream. But today, Blue Bell bakes its own cookies for this flavor.
As of 1997, Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla was the best-selling single flavor of ice cream in the United States. In 2001, Forbes magazine called Blue Bell the best ice cream in the country.
Sometimes, when Blue Bell enters a new market, they introduce a special flavor just for that area. For example, when they came to Colorado on March 14, 2011, they introduced Rocky Mountain Road. This flavor had special ingredients like chocolate-covered nuts and marshmallow swirl. It was first sold in the Denver area. Later, this flavor was sold across all of Blue Bell's sales territory.
2015 Listeria Outbreak and Return
In 2015, Blue Bell had its first product recall in its 108-year history. They recalled many items made at their factories. This was because five people in Kansas got sick with listeriosis. It was believed to be caused by products from their factory in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Sadly, three of these five people passed away.
Blue Bell recalled more products and temporarily closed its Broken Arrow plant. However, tests still found Listeria in different places and plants. This included three more cases in Texas. So, on April 20, 2015, the company decided to recall all of its products. This meant over eight million gallons of ice cream had to be thrown away.
At the same time, the company stopped making ice cream. They began cleaning and fixing their factories. The FDA found that the company had not followed rules to prevent contamination. Two years before the recalls, the company had found listeria many times in its Broken Arrow factory. At their main factory in Brenham, one machine was so contaminated that Blue Bell decided to stop using it forever. Water drops were also found in parts of the Brenham factory.
On May 15, Blue Bell announced job cuts. About 1,450 employees (37%) were laid off. Another 1,400 employees were temporarily sent home until the cleaning was done. The remaining 1,050 employees, who were involved in important work and cleaning, had their pay reduced.
Blue Bell also closed 15 of its over 50 distribution centers for a while. This was because they could not make or deliver enough ice cream. The affected centers included places like Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada. The company hopes to return to these markets eventually.
The recalls were so serious that they threatened to shut down the company. On July 14, 2015, Sid Bass, a well-known investor from Texas, became a partner. Blue Bell received a $125 million loan to keep going. Around the same time, Blue Bell's factory in Sylacauga, Alabama, started making ice cream again. They made test batches that were checked for all types of bacteria, including listeria. The ice cream was not sold until it tested clean.
Returning to Stores
On August 17, 2015, Blue Bell announced a five-step plan to bring its ice cream back to stores:
- Phase 1: Houston and Austin areas of Texas, plus Birmingham and Montgomery areas of Alabama.
- Phase 2: North central Texas (Dallas–Fort Worth) and northern Oklahoma including Tulsa.
- Phase 3: Southwest Texas (San Antonio) and central Oklahoma including Oklahoma City.
- Phase 4: Most of Texas plus southern Louisiana including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
- Phase 5: The rest of Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Also, all of Arkansas, Florida, and Mississippi, and parts of Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Phase 1 began on August 31, 2015. Phase 2 began in November 2015. A month later, phases 3 and 4 began. The day after its first rollout, on September 1, Blue Bell started making ice cream again at its Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, factory.
On January 28, 2016, the company started distributing to large parts of the Southeastern US again. On March 6, 2017, Blue Bell reopened its three distribution centers in Arizona. This completed distribution across that state.
In March 2018, the company began distributing to much of Indiana, central Kentucky, and northern New Mexico. In March 2019, the company returned to much of Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, and the greater Kansas City area. In March 2022, the company resumed distribution to parts of Nevada. In mid-April 2023, distribution returned to Wichita, Kansas.
Investigation into the Outbreak
In December 2015, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) started an investigation into Blue Bell Creameries. They wanted to find out what Blue Bell leaders knew about the contamination and when they knew it. They also wanted to know what the leaders did about it.
In 2020, the company admitted to charges that it sold contaminated products. They paid a $19.35 million fine.
On October 22, 2020, Paul Kruse, who was Blue Bell's CEO during the outbreak, was charged with several serious crimes. These charges were about a possible cover-up. In August 2022, the DOJ tried Kruse in court. The trial ended without a decision because the jury could not agree. A new trial was planned for April 2023. However, Kruse made a deal with the DOJ in March. Under this deal, Kruse admitted to a less serious charge. He agreed to pay a $100,000 fine. He will not go to prison.
See also
- List of dairy product companies in the United States
