<P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 opened in Sylacauga, Alabama, east 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 radius . </P> <P> In 2015, Blue Bell issued a series of recalls 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 16 states based on Blue Bell's limited distribution capabilities in the near term . </P>

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