It is said that Texans living outside Texas miss three things most: Whataburger, Tex-Mex food, and Blue Bell ice cream.
Blue Bell is an old Texas brand that dates back to 1907. It has always presented itself as “the little creamery in Brenham.” Small and homey was the image it carefully cultivated, beautifully illustrated by its slogan: “We eat all we can and sell the rest.”
By 2015, however, Blue Bell had actually become the third-largest ice cream company in America, behind only Nestlé and Unilever, even though its products were available in just 23 states. The Blue Bell customer base was simply fanatically loyal. But then, that year, the listeria scandal struck.
Blue Bell’s legendary reputation for quality control was destroyed. Ten people in four states were likely affected, in cases dating back as far as 2010. Three of them died. It was tragic for the families who lost loved ones or suffered alongside them during their fight to recover, and catastrophic news for a once-trusted brand that some experts feared would not survive the tragedy.
Blue Bell initially recalled only part of its product line. As more cases linked to Blue Bell products emerged and those cases were traced to the plant in Brenham and another in Oklahoma, the company ultimately recalled everything in April 2015. Containers were removed from the shelves of grocery stores and convenience stores—8 million gallons of ice cream and every single specialty product Blue Bell made. The plants in Brenham, Oklahoma, and Alabama had to be shut down for extensive renovations. Blue Bell executives laid off or furloughed thousands of employees across three states. For a company that had just achieved record sales, the recall was a harsh dose of reality.
Customers mourned. Thousands of photos appeared on social media showing people looking sad beside empty freezers, some pretending to cry. On recall notices posted on freezer doors, customers wrote love notes: “We love you, Blue Bell,” “Don’t leave me, Blue Bell,” “I’ve never craved ice cream so much,” “God bless Blue Bell!”
A common meme on social media at the time read: “Let me explain this to Northerners who don’t understand the tragedy of recent events. The Blue Bell recall does not mean we have lost one brand of ice cream. We DO NOT BUY other brands of ice cream. The Blue Bell recall means WE HAVE NO ICE CREAM!” After the shock of the recall and shutdown, a Facebook page called “I Love and Support Blue Bell Ice Cream” was created and gained a large following. T-shirts appeared bearing the words “I Survived the Blue Bell Famine of 2015.” Some people did not wait for the recall to end and boldly bought half-gallon containers of Blue Bell on Craigslist for astonishing sums.
All the love Blue Bell received during the crisis did not solve the company’s problems. Blue Bell was in desperate straits. Banks were not exactly lining up to save it. Many business experts expected it to file for bankruptcy and be bought by Nestlé or some other giant conglomerate.
Blue Bell needed a miracle, and a miracle arrived. A white knight named Sid Bass came to the rescue. He wrote Blue Bell a check for $125 million. It was not a gift; it was described both as a “loan” and as an “investment” that would give Bass a sizable stake in the company. Even so, it was a beautiful moment, because one Texas icon had ridden in to save another.
Sid Bass, if you are not familiar with him, is the eldest of the famous Bass brothers, all four of them billionaires from Fort Worth. Their wealth originated with their famous uncle, Sid Richardson, who was one of the legendary Texas oilmen of the last century. In the 1950s, he was known as one of the richest men in America and established the Sid Richardson Foundation to support nonprofit organizations serving the people of Texas. It seems you cannot set foot on any university campus in Texas without seeing a Sid Richardson theater, art museum, or research center; you will also see the Bass name on many cultural buildings throughout the state.
Doug Renfro, president of Renfro Foods in Fort Worth, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as the seven-month recall drew to a close: “For Bass, who will always be a smart businessman, it still has to be great to be regarded as a white knight, the hero who rides in to save a Texas icon.”
When Bass’s rescue was announced, social media exploded with applause and praise. You saw comments such as “Hail Sid Bass” and “Someone should kiss him right on the lips and thank him for Texas.”
Everything appears to be going well. By 2018, Blue Bell had returned to its position as the fifth-largest ice cream company in America. Its best-selling flavor, which accounts for about 60% of sales, is still the much-loved Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
