Yarnells cranks out final carton

After 79 years, firm shuts doors

MICHAEL LIPKIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Yarnells Ice Cream Co., a family-owned mainstay in Arkansas since 1932, filled its last container early Thursday, sent its workers home and shut down. The company simply ran out of options, its officials said. About 200 employees at the Searcy-based firm are now without jobs, and the state is without a product that for many Arkansans has been a sweet favorite even a point of pride for 79 years. Company officials cited rising prices for fuel, cream and sugar. This has been an extremely tough year for the ice cream industry in general, and particularly to regional, independent manufacturers like ourselves, Chief Executive Christina Yarnell said in a news release Thursday morning. Ice-cream production and sales are down nationwide, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. About 1.52 billion gallons of ice cream were made in the U.S. in 2009, a decline of 5.4 percent from 2000. More than 1,200 ice-cream plants have closed across the country since 1970, leaving only 352 in operation in 2009. A Yarnells spokesman said the company has been trying to sell the company or secure additional financing. Theyve been searching high and low for an investor or buyer for a while now and came to the end of their rope, spokesman Natalie Ghidotti said in an interview. Its been many months, she said. Yarnell executives would not comment. The cost of ingredients and fuel make it tough for anyone to do business, said Bill Weiss, a spokesman for Blue Bell Creameries, a Brenham, Texas-based competitor. Weiss said Blue Bell and Yarnells face added
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difficulties because theyre regional brands. Such companies grapple with brand recognition, he said. So you have to spend every day trying to earn the consumers trust. Arkansans contacted Thursday bemoaned the loss of their favorite brand right before the Fourth of July weekend. Its a tragedy for those 200 people who lost their job, but its a sad day for Arkansans, too, said Steven Murray, chancellor of Phillips Community College in Helena-West Helena. I used to joke that my goal in life was to die with Yarnells on my breath. Im buying a few gallons on the way home to stock up on. Edwards Food Giant in Little Rocks Tanglewood Center sold 400 half-gallon tubs of Yarnells on Thursday twothirds of its stock after word got out about the shutdown. Yarnells always sells pretty good, but today people were buying them five to seven at a time, said assistant manager Wayne Lowery. I just hope there are some left when I get off my shift at 10. Arkansas locations of Purple Cow Restaurants have exclusively used Yarnells ice cream for more than 20 years. Yarnells even made a purplecolored vanilla flavor for the restaurants milkshakes. Those milkshakes are one of the Little Rock-based chains best-sellers, said Kerri Evans, manager of the store at 8026 Cantrell Road. Purple Cow Restaurant President Todd Gold said hell switch to Blue Bell, which supplies ice cream to his Texas locations. Thats our quick fix for the summer, he said. Yarnells has been an Arkansas tradition, said Irene Wassell, a former food editor at the Arkansas DemocratGazette. Yarnells always seemed like the hometown ice cream that you just couldnt beat, she said. Their plain vanilla ice cream is just good ice cream rich and smooth and perfect with anything you put on it. I always had pride in it myself because it was an Arkansas company. Part of the reverence for Yarnells stems from its near-

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KAREN E. SEGRAVE

Joelle Fahoum (left) and her brother Sef enjoy purple milkshakes Thursday with their mother, Vicki, at the Purple Cow Restaurant on Cantrell Road in Little Rock, for which Yarnells has been the exclusive ice cream supplier for years. Yarnells said Thursday that it is ceasing operations.

ly 80-year history, said Eddie Best, a former president of the White County Historical Society. The company has been a source of employment for generations, even when few local businesses could afford to hire. They were an example for the community on how to survive, said Best, who was public relations director for Yarnells in the past decade. They came out of the depths of the Depression and provided a livelihood for people for a long, long time. Their roots in Searcy were deeper than anyone elses. In addition to the Searcy plant, which employed about 150, Yarnells had operations

Its a tragedy for those 200 people who lost their job, but its a sad day for Arkansans, too.
Steven Murray, chancellor of Phillips Community College in Helena-West Helena
elsewhere in Arkansas and in Tennessee and Mississippi. While most employees last day of work was Thursday, about 10 employees will stay

on until Aug. 27 to finalize operations, a company news release said. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act prevents companies from unexpectedly closing plants or laying off more than 100 employees at a time. Companies must give employees at least 60 days notice, but the act grants exceptions to faltering companies or those that seek new capital but are unable to find it. Yarnells gave all of its employees notices Thursday morning that said the plant closure was because of an unexpected failure to obtain business capital and sell the company.

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