Dive Brief:
- Blue Bunny is closing its plant in St. George, Utah, and will move production to its facility in Iowa. About 90 people will lose their jobs.
- Wells Enterprises, the owner of the Blue Bunny brand, said the move will happen over several months and that the Utah plant will be shuttered by the end of 2014.
- Wells built the Utah plant in 2003 in anticipation of rising demand for its products in the Western US.
Dive Insight:
The decision to shift production back to Iowa—specifically to Blue Bunny's headquarters in the town of Le Mars—is not a surprise. Wells has the distinction of being the largest privately-held and family-owned ice cream maker in the country. And Le Mars, at least according to Wells, is the ice cream capital of the world, making more of the stuff than any place else on earth.
