More areas get Blue Bell back
Phase 3 of market reentry puts ice cream on shelves in most of Texas.
Blue Bell ice cream is soon to return to a lot more Texas cities.
The Brenham-based company said Friday that it will launch the third phase of its market re-entry plan on Dec. 14, putting Blue Bell products back on store shelves in Abilene, Amarillo, Beaumont, Big Spring, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Laredo, Longview, Lubbock, Lufkin, Midland, McAllen, Odessa, San Antonio and Tyler, as well as Mobile, Ala.
In the first phase of re-entry, Blue Bell returned to retailers in Austin and Houston on Aug. 31. The Dallas-Fort Worth area and Waco made up the bulk of phase two, which kicked off Nov. 2.
“We continue to fill stores in phase two but we can now focus our attention on the addition of phase three beginning Dec. 14,” Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell, said in a written statement. “This phase includes most of Alabama and Texas and it is our largest phase so far.”
There are two more phases in Blue Bell’s re-entry plan. Dates for those two phases have yet to be announced.
“We are excited to announce phase three today and look forward to releasing the dates for the remaining two phases,” Dickson said. “We understand it has taken time to get our products back in stores and we greatly appreciate the patience and support of our customers.”
Blue Bell initiated the first recall in its 108-year history earlier this year after several listeria cases — includ-
ing three deaths — were linked to its products. Products stayed off store shelves for about four months while Blue Bell worked to clean and renovate its four ice cream plants.
The two Brenham plants remain offline. Work is taking longer on those facilities because they are larger than ones in Broken Arrow, Okla., and Sylacauga, Ala., that have already reopened, the company has said.
For now, five Blue Bell flavors are available: Buttered Pecan, Cookies ’n Cream, Dutch Chocolate, Great Divide and
Homemade Vanilla.