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Blue Bell Creameries is an American food company that manufactures ice cream. It was founded in 1907 in Brenham, Texas. For much of its early history, the company manufactured both ice cream and butter locally. In the mid-20th century, it abandoned butter production and expanded to the entire state of Texas and soon much of the Southern United States. The company's corporate headquarters are located at the "Little Creamery" in Brenham, Texas. Since 1919, it has been in the hands of the Kruse family. As of 2015, Blue Bell was the #2 selling ice cream manufacturer in the United States. History The company has its roots in the Brenham Creamery Company, which opened in 1907 to purchase excess cream from local dairy farmers and sell butter to people in Brenham, Texas, a town situated approximately 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Houston. In 1911, the creamery began to produce small quantities of ice cream. By 1919, the Creamery was in financial trouble and considered closing its doors. The board of directors hired E.F. Kruse, a 23-year-old former schoolteacher, to take over the company on April 1, 1919. Kruse refused to accept a salary for his first few months in the position so that the company would not be placed in further debt. Under his leadership, the company expanded its production of ice cream to the surrounding Brenham area and soon became profitable. At his suggestion, the company was renamed Blue Bell Creameries in 1930 after Kruse's favorite wildflower the Texas bluebell, which, like ice cream, thrives during the summer. Until 1936, the creamery made ice cream by the batch. It could create a 10-US-gallon (38 L) batch of ice cream every 20 minutes. That same year, in 1936, the company purchased its first continuous ice cream freezer, which could make 80 US gallons (300 L) of ice cream per hour. The ice cream would run through a spigot, allowing it to be poured into any size container. Kruse was diagnosed with cancer in 1951 and died within 8 weeks. His sons Ed and Howard took over leadership of the company. By the 1960s, the company completely abandoned the production of butter and began focusing solely on ice cream. After many years of selling ice cream only in Brenham, the company began selling its ice cream in the Houston area, eventually expanding throughout most of Texas including the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the state capital of Austin. By the end of the 1970s, sales had quadrupled, and by 1980 the creamery was producing over 10 million gallons (37,850,000 liters) of ice cream per year, earning $30 million annually. In 1989, Blue Bell began selling its ice cream in Oklahoma, and throughout the 1990s expansion pushed throughout the South Central and Southern United States, eventually expanding out to New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi. In 1992, Blue Bell built a new manufacturing facility in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Four years later, in 1996, Blue Bell opened a third manufacturing facility in Sylacauga, Alabama, southeast of Birmingham, and eventually expanded into Atlanta and Miami. Once Blue Bell establishes itself within a market, word-of-mouth usually ensures that consumers in adjacent areas become aware of the brand. Blue Bell has been slow to expand: company executives say they thoroughly research each new market and ensure that all employees in the new markets are fully trained in Blue Bell practices so that product quality can be upheld. Blue Bell often tends to expand to markets during March each year, expanding to Colorado on March 14, 2011, followed by the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia in 2013, and Las Vegas in 2014. These expansions are accompanied with the purchase and/or construction of distribution centers in new markets that serve areas within a 75-mile (121 km) radius. In 2015, Blue Bell issued a series of recalls (see below for more on this) that eventually shut down production and led to all of its products being recalled on April 20, culminating in job cuts and furloughs (as well as the reduction of its 23-state sales territory) resulting from the shutdown the following May. In conjunction with factory cleanup procedures and agreements with state and federal authorities, the company returned to production three months later on a limited basis, returning its products to the market on August 31 in portions of Texas and Alabama as part of a five-phase plan to return to much of its pre-recall distribution territory, which has been reduced to 21 states based on Blue Bell's limited distribution capabilities in the near term. In 2018, children of an interracial family posted an open letter on Facebook addressed to Blue Bell asking that the flavor "The Great Divide" (equal halves of chocolate and vanilla ice cream) be changed to "Better Together". While Blue Bell spokespersons reacted positively to the name change proposal, the post became controversial among some Facebook users who dismissed the original name as inoffensive. In July 2019, The Blue Bell Creameries faced an issue that went viral after a teenage female licked one of their ice cream tubs at a Walmart in Lufkin, Texas, then placed it back in the freezer. She was later arrested. After the incident, multiple copycats were committed, and some were jailed. These incidents resulted with severe negative reactions that violating food in such a manner is dangerous to the public health, along with criticisms that no action is taken to punish any offenders and Blue Bell for not protecting their ice cream with a plastic seal. Mid-March 2024 saw expansion to St. Louis, MO & East St. Louis, IL. Operations As of 2015, the company operated three manufacturing facilities, with the largest facility in Brenham, and auxiliary facilities in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Sylacauga, Alabama. Before the 2015 recalls, there were 50 sales and distribution centers, known as branches, spread throughout its 23-state market. These facilities employed a combined 2,800 employees, with 850 of the employees working out of Brenham. In 2006, annual sales exceeded $400 million. Blue Bell retains control over all aspects of its business, primarily to ensure quality control and the use of the freshest ingredients available. The Kruses claim "the milk we use is so fresh it was grass only yesterday." The company uses milk from approximately 60,000 cows each day, and the cream used during each day's production run is always less than 24 hours old. All production and packaging takes place within Blue Bell facilities, which are able to produce over 100 pints per minute. Drivers of delivery vehicles personally stock store shelves so they can ensure it is handled properly. According to figures gathered by Statista, a market data and statistics portal, while combined private labels sold more, in 2014 Blue Bell was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States. The sales area is primarily concentrated in the Southern United States, and has been sold as far west as Las Vegas, as far nor.... Discover the K A Kruse popular books. Find the top 100 most popular K A Kruse books.