Blue Bell to lay off 37% of workforce, some in Charlotte

Blue Bell Creameries, the Texas-based ice cream maker struggling with the fallout from listeria cases linked to its products, said Friday it is laying off 1,450 employees, including an unspecified number at its Charlotte distribution center.

The company said it will issue furloughs to an additional 1,400 employees – a move resulting from its need to cut costs in wake of sweeping changes to its manufacturing process, according to a statement.

Blue Bell expects to lay off 750 full-time and 700 part-time employees – or 37 percent of its 3,900 workers. Because production capacity will be limited once the company starts making ice cream again, more than a dozen distribution centers will be closed, including facilities in Charlotte, the Raleigh area and Columbia.

Blue Bell’s Charlotte distribution center is on Sidney Circle, off Statesville Road about 11 miles north of uptown. A spokesperson at the company’s Texas headquarters could not say exactly how many work in Charlotte, but said such facilities typically employ 30 to 50 people. Messages left at the facility were not immediately returned.

The announcement comes just a day after the company made agreements with health inspectors to upgrade its sanitizing procedures and bacteria testing methods after strains of listeria were found in its dairy products, according to the U.S. Drug and Food Administration.

Last month, Blue Bell recalled all of its products when samples of its ice cream tested positive for listeria, a potentially fatal bacteria. Contaminated products were linked to seven listeria illnesses in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and three deaths in Kansas.

Since the recall, the company says it has been working to bring its products back to market by improving its ice cream production. But cleaning and improving its four production plants “is going to take longer than the company initially anticipated,” especially at the main plant in Brenham, Texas, about 70 miles from Houston.

Calling the decision “agonizing,” Blue Bell President Paul Kruse said in a statement that laying off hundreds of workers and reducing hours and pay for others was one of the most difficult choices he’s had to make as the company’s chief. Kruse became the company’s CEO in 2004 after serving as its vice president.

Some of the company’s employees will be placed on a partially paid furlough. Employees whose pay will be reduced include those “essential” to the firm’s cleaning and repair efforts, Blue Bell said.

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Blue Bell to lay off 37% of workforce, some in Charlotte."