Current Status
As of 2009, the company operates three manufacturing facilities, the largest facility in Brenham, with auxiliary facilities in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Sylacauga, Alabama. There are also 49 sales and distribution centers, known as branches, spread throughout its 20-state market. These facilities employ 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.
Blue Bell holds impressive sales figures, being the third best-selling ice cream in the United States, behind Breyers and Edy's/Dreyer's, despite being sold in only 20 states. The sales area includes southern states between Arizona and Florida and Kansas City, an area that comprises only 20% of the ice cream sales geographic market. By comparison, each of Blue Bell's top four competitors sell its products in over 86% of the United States. To become one of the three biggest ice cream manufacturers, Blue Bell has consistently been the top seller in the majority of the markets the company has entered. Within five months of its entry into Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the company had garnered 35% of the ice cream market. In its home state of Texas, the company has a 52% market share. People living outside the sales area can have the ice cream shipped to them, and former U.S. President George W. Bush often had the ice cream shipped to Camp David during his administration. The astronauts aboard the International Space Station were also treated to Blue Bell in 2006 and 2012 "to help out (the crew's) happiness quotient."
Blue Bell officially expanded its business to Colorado on March 14, 2011, debuting its new flavor exclusive to Colorado: Rocky Mountain Road Ice Cream. While the test market is in the Denver-metro area, there has been speculation that the rest of the state will soon see Blue Bell on store shelves.
Read more about this topic: Blue Bell Creameries
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