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The start of Blue Bell Ice Cream to Blue Bell Ice Cream today.
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The Brenham Creamery Company was opened in 1907. The creamery bought excess cream from farmers to produce and sell butter to the people in Brenham, Texas.
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Using the cream, the creamery started to make small quantities of ice cream along with butter. The creamery made 2 gallons of ice cream a day.
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The Brenham Creamery Company considered shutting down because of financial troubles.
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E.F. Kruse, a former school teacher 23 years of age was hired to take over Brenham Creamery Company He didn't take a salary for the first few months to help the creamery get out of debt.
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In 1930, upon Kruse's suggestion, the Brenham Creamery Company's new name was Blue Bell Creameries, after the Texas bluebell flower.
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The creamery got its first continuous freezer in 1936, due to which the creamery started to make 80 gallons of ice cream an hour.Before, the creamery made a 10 gallon batch in 20 minutes, so 30 gallons were made in an hour. The ice cream in the freezer travels through a spigot, which lets the ice be poured into any size container.
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Kruse died within 8 weeks of being diagnosed with cancer. His sons, Ed and Howard, took over the company.
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The production of butter was abandoned and the creamery focused solely on the production of ice cream. Later in the 1960's, the company started to sell ice cream in Houston, then Dallas and most of Texas.
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Blue Bell introduced Homemade Vanilla and Cookies 'n Cream in 1969. Blue Bell was the first creamery to make Cookies 'n Cream. They first put Nabisco's Oreos in the ice cream, but later they started bakig their own cookies.
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By the end of the 1970s, ice cream sales had quadrupled.
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By 1980, Blue Bell Creameries made over 10 million gallons a year and made $30 million annually.
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A Blue Bell factory is built in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
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In 1997, Homemade Vanilla was the best selling single flavor of ice cream in the country.
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Forbes named Blue Bell the No. 1 ice cream in 2001.
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Blue Bell Creameries earned over $400 million annually in 2006.
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In honor of its 100th anniversary, Blue Bell introduced 2 new flavors of ice cream, Century Sundae and Anniversary Cake.
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The company has 3 factories, the largest in Brenham, Texas. The other two are in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Sylacauga, Alabama. There are 49 branches throughout the 19 state market. The creamery employs 2,800 people--850 in Brenham.
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On March 14, 2011, Blue Bell introduced Rocky Mountain Road Ice Cream to Denver, Colorado. The flavor is exclusive to this state. The creamery says that Colorado will have Blue Bell Ice Cream on its shelves soon.
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Blue Bell is the only creamery to sell ice cream in a half gallon carton. All the other companies sell ice cream in 48 oz. containers. Blue Bell Creameries sells over 250 products, 66 are flavors of ice cream. 20 flavors are offered year round, and another 2-3 dozen are offered seasonally. Blue Bell Ice Cream Video
