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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Jimmy Lawhorn, 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 an American company that makes and sells delicious ice cream. In 2015, Blue Bell was one of the top-selling ice cream makers in the United States. The company started way back in 1907 in a small town called Brenham, Texas. For many years, they made both ice cream and butter for local customers. Later, they decided to focus only on ice cream and grew to sell it all over Texas and much of the Southern United States. The company's main office is still in Brenham, Texas, and the Kruse family has been leading it since 1919.
Contents
Blue Bell Creameries: A Sweet History
How It All Began
The company first opened in 1907 as the 'Brenham Creamery Company'. Their main idea was to buy extra cream from local dairy farmers and sell butter to people in Brenham, Texas. This town is about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Houston. In 1911, the creamery started making small amounts of ice cream too.
By 1919, the company was having money troubles. The leaders hired E.F. Kruse, a 23-year-old former school teacher, to take charge on April 1, 1919. Kruse worked without pay for the first few months to help the company save money. Under his guidance, the company made more ice cream and started selling it in nearby areas around Brenham. Soon, the company became successful! In 1930, Kruse suggested changing the company's name to 'Blue Bell Creameries'. He named it after his favorite wildflower, the Texas bluebell.
Before 1936, the creamery made ice cream in small batches. They could make a 10-US-gallon (38 L) batch of ice cream every 20 minutes. That year, they bought a new machine that could make 80 US gallons (300 L) of ice cream every hour! This machine made it easy to pour ice cream into containers of any size.
E.F. Kruse passed away in 1951. After him, his sons, Ed and Howard, took over leading the company.
Growing Bigger and Better
By the 1960s, Blue Bell stopped making butter and focused completely on ice cream. After many years of selling ice cream only in Brenham, the company started selling it in the Houston area. They soon expanded across most of Texas, including the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the state capital of Austin.
By the end of the 1970s, sales had grown four times larger. By 1980, the creamery was making over 10 million gallons (37,850,000 liters) of ice cream each year, 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, reaching 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, near Birmingham. This allowed them to expand into Atlanta and Miami.
Blue Bell takes its time to grow. Company leaders carefully study each new area and make sure all new employees are well-trained. This helps them keep their ice cream quality high. Blue Bell often expands to new places in March each year. For example, they started selling in Colorado on March 14, 2011. They also expanded to the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia in 2013, and Las Vegas in 2014. When they expand, they also build or buy distribution centers. These centers help deliver ice cream to stores within about 75 miles (121 km).
A Challenge and a Comeback
In 2015, Blue Bell had to recall some of its products for the first time in its long history. This happened because a type of bacteria called Listeria was found in some ice cream made at one of their factories. This bacteria can make people very sick. Blue Bell quickly stopped making ice cream at that factory and worked hard to clean everything and make sure their products were safe.
Even after the first recalls, more tests showed Listeria in different places and plants. So, on April 20, 2015, the company took a big step and recalled *all* of its products. This meant they had to get rid of over eight million gallons of ice cream to keep everyone safe.
At the same time, Blue Bell stopped making ice cream and started a huge cleanup and repair project at all its factories. Health authorities worked with Blue Bell to ensure all food safety rules were followed and that the company learned from the situation. The company even decided to stop using one of its ice cream machines at the Brenham factory because it was too hard to clean completely.
While the company worked to fix things, they had to make some tough decisions to keep going. A helpful investor named Sid Bass stepped in to provide support, making sure Blue Bell could get back on its feet with a $125 million loan. Around the same time, Blue Bell's factory in Sylacauga, Alabama, started making 'test' batches of ice cream. They would test these batches carefully to make sure they were completely free of any harmful bacteria before selling them.
Authorities continued to work with Blue Bell to ensure food safety. In 2020, the company paid a fine to resolve issues related to distributing contaminated products. This showed their commitment to making sure their ice cream is always safe for everyone to enjoy.
Back on Store Shelves!
On August 17, 2015, Blue Bell announced a five-step plan to bring their 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, plus 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 started in November 2015. A month later, phases 3 and 4 began. The day after the first ice cream returned, on September 1, Blue Bell also restarted production at its Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, factory.
On January 28, 2016, the company began distributing ice cream again to many parts of the Southeastern U.S. On March 6, 2017, Blue Bell reopened its distribution centers in Tucson, Arizona and Phoenix, Arizona to serve the entire state of Arizona.
In 2018, children from an interracial family wrote a letter asking Blue Bell to change the name of their "The Great Divide" flavor (which has equal parts chocolate and vanilla) to "Better Together." Blue Bell liked the idea, and it sparked a friendly discussion among fans.
In March 2018, the company started distributing to much of Indiana, the middle part of Kentucky, and northern New Mexico. In March 2019, they returned to much of the Virginia area, northeastern North Carolina, and greater Kansas City.
In July 2019, a video went viral online showing a teenager licking a tub of Blue Bell ice cream in a store and putting it back. This reminded everyone how important it is to keep food safe and untouched in stores. Blue Bell also looked into ways to make their ice cream tubs even more secure.
In March 2022, the company resumed distribution to Clark and Nye counties in Nevada. In mid-April 2023, distribution returned to Wichita, Kansas. In February 2025, Blue Bell introduced its products to southern Utah for the first time.
Delicious Products They Make
Blue Bell makes over 250 different frozen treats! Of these, 66 are flavors of ice cream. Twenty of these flavors are available all year, while another two to three dozen are special seasonal flavors. Besides ice cream, the company also makes frozen yogurt, sherbet, and many frozen treats on a stick. Unlike some other companies that sell smaller containers, Blue Bell still sells true half-gallon (64 fl oz/1.89 L) containers, and they like to mention this in their ads!
The company introduced its most famous flavor, Homemade Vanilla, in 1969. They were also one of the first companies to make cookies 'n cream ice cream for everyone to buy. While they once used Oreo cookies, today Blue Bell bakes its own cookies for this popular flavor. In 1997, Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla was the best-selling single flavor of ice cream in the United States. In 2001, Forbes magazine even called Blue Bell the best ice cream in the country!
Sometimes, when Blue Bell enters a new market, they create a special flavor just for that area. For example, when they started selling in Colorado on March 14, 2011, they introduced a new flavor called Rocky Mountain Road. This flavor had special ingredients like chocolate-covered nuts and a marshmallow swirl. Eventually, this flavor became available everywhere Blue Bell sells.
In May 2025, Blue Bell brought back a popular flavor named Groom's Cake Ice Cream for a limited time. This flavor was a big hit with fans and was chosen as their favorite in a special flavor tournament in 2024.
How Blue Bell Works
Before the 2015 recalls, Blue Bell had 50 sales and distribution centers, called branches, across 24 states. These places employed about 2,800 people. In 2006, the company's yearly sales were over $400 million. In 2015, the company had three factories: the largest one in Brenham, Texas, and others in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Sylacauga, Alabama.
According to market data, Blue Bell was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States in 2014, even though other companies sold more private label brands combined. Blue Bell mainly sells its products in the Southern United States. Their ice cream has been sold as far west as Las Vegas, as far north as Indianapolis and Denver, and as far east as Richmond, Virginia. This area covers about 20% of the United States. Blue Bell has often been the top seller in most of the markets it has entered. For example, in its home state of Texas, the company has a 52% share of the ice cream market!
Blue Bell likes to control every part of its business. This helps them make sure their ice cream is always top quality and made with the freshest ingredients. All the ice cream is made and packaged in Blue Bell factories, which can produce over 100 pints every minute! Even the drivers who deliver the ice cream personally put it on store shelves to make sure it's handled just right.
The company uses milk from about 60,000 cows every day. The cream they use for making ice cream is always less than 24 hours old. The Kruse family, who runs the company, likes to say, "the milk we use is so fresh it was grass only yesterday!"
See also
In Spanish: Blue Bell Creameries para niños
- List of dairy product companies in the United States
