Blue Bell-Listeria Crisis

Blue Bell Creameries Listeria Crisis

An organization’s quick response to crisis and effective crisis management are both vital to their sustainability. Blue Bell Creameries faced crisis in April, when a bacterial contamination caused operations to halt world-wide. Crisis management for this company has involved much more than finding and fixing the issue. This company has responded to financial loss, legal ramifications, employee impact, and perhaps the most crucial – public perception.

About the Company

Blue Bell Creameries has been producing ice cream since 1907. This company is based in Brenham, Texas additional locations in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Sylacauga, Alabama where they produced ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet, and frozen treats. These three facilities distribute world-wide with retail sales in twenty three states and thirty three international locations. (Parker, 2015).

Company in Crisis

In April of this year, a bacterial contamination was discovered at two of the three facilities. Blue Bell’s Chocolate Chip produced on March 17 and March 24 at the Oklahoma and Texas facilities contained Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria). Blue Bell reported five patients treated in Kansas and three in Texas all testing positive for the Listeria bacteria. On April 20, Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse announced a world-wide recall of not just the contaminated product, but instead all of its products at all locations. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
Response to Crisis
According to an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there were a total of ten reported cases of Listeria infection in four different states reported to the Center for Disease Control within the last five years. Several of these strains closely matched that found in random sampling of Blue Bell products. FDA reported that the company issued the first recall of certain products on March 22, a second recall on March 23, and voluntarily suspended operations at the Oklahoma facility on April 3. As the investigation continued, they expanded the recall on April 7, and then finally recalled all products on April 20 due to the potential for contamination. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
Following the recall, Blue Bell began using its preexisting web presence to distribute valuable information such as the official recall statement and contact information. Their website was transformed into an informational resource giving out updates and links to a page for frequently asked questions. They also used their site and media sources to inform the public about the concerns of Listeria contamination.
“We’re committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the market until we can be confident that they are all safe,” said Kruse, “We are heartbroken about this situation and apologize to all of our loyal Blue Bell fans and customers.

Our entire history has been about making the very best and highest quality ice cream and we intend to fix this problem. We want enjoying our ice cream to be a source of joy and pleasure, never a cause for concern, so we are committed to getting this right.” (Blue Bell Creameries, 2015).

The statement released by Blue Bell explains: “…Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.” (Blue Bell Creameries,

2015).
Halting operations and recalling all products was the first steps of containing the contamination and preventing further public harm. The company then had to conduct a root cause analyses, establish and review controls to prevent future contamination, implement notifications procedures, and develop a new Pathogen Monitoring Program as required by the FDA. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
Impact of Crisis
Employee Impact
Despite suspended operations and a complete recall of all products, Blue Bell initially stated their intent to retain all employees. “In our entire history we’ve never had layoffs. It’s not happening now,” said spokeswoman Jenny Van Dorf, “We’re just trying to focus on the cleanup and making sure we have a safe product. It’s the right things to do and it’s what we have to do so people will trust our product.” (Lobosco & Isidore, 2015).
Blue Bell Creameries let the public know in May that they were still undergoing repairs and improvements at their facilties and were not ready to resume operations. They reported having to lay off 750 full-time employees and 700 part-time employees, and placed 1,400 on furlough. They also have suspended operations at many of their distribution locations. According to the company site, Blue Bell executives will be assisting employees to find available jobs in their areas. (Blue Bell Creameries, 2015).
Community Impact
The town of Brenham consist of 16,000 residents 900 of which are employeed by Blue Bell Creameries. Layoffs and furloughs will impact that town. The town is also concerned with a lack of tourism since about 250,000 people travel to Brenham every year to tour the Blue Bell headquarters. (Green, 2015).
Texas Poison Centers reported a large surge in calls between the months of March and May related to the Blue Bell recall. They received 112 calls from concerned citizens of which 48 were request for information and 64 were concerns of possible illness from Blue Bell products. The largest portion of those calls came in after Blue Bell's first recall of retail products and then after their four extention, which also included retail products. These reports show that the public was impacted by the crisis. (Forrester, 2015).
Financial Impact
Early on experts estimated that this type of crisis could cost the company over 10 million to investigate, correct and recoop, but that was before the full impact of the final world-wide recall and suspension of operations. After that last recall, information became hard to find. This is still an ongoing crisis so the full financial impact is yet to be known, however, one would expect to see contributing factors along the way. The amount of information concernning impact alone points toward vast losses, but those reports do not appear to be available to the public at this time.
Resolving the Crisis
According to Dallas News, Blue Bell Creameries actually issued a withdrawal in February before any reported illnesses. This was a quiet withdrawal where employees went from one retail location to another all over the distribution area to collect the certain products. Blue Bell claims that due to litigation proceedings they cannot discuss that withdrawal and if it pertained to possible Listeria contamination. (Robinson-Jacobs, 2015).
As more government reports were released, it was determinded that this company had issues as far back as 2010. In an interview with CNNMoney, Blue Bell stated that there were issues in 2013, but they thought their current cleaning procedures would take care of any problems. They said that in hindsight, their procedures were not adequate. The article by CNNMoney reported that investigators had previously found Blue Bells process of sanitation to be inadequte. (Lobosco, 2015.)
It seems clear to say that Blue Bell did not act in their best interest in all steps of managing this crisis. Failure to respond in a timely manor and not having an open door policy with the public has both hurt this company at least in public opinion. Until these operations are open again, it will be hard to prodict an out come.
Conclusion
It seems that Blue Bell Creameries has done something right or they would not still be standing after a crisis of this magnitude. 108 years of local customers might be the determining factor for this company. Recovery will require a lot of dedication and hard work because even loyal customers will need to regain their trust. The future for Blue Bell Creameries is still uncertain at this time.