Thursday, January 5, 2023

Ferrero buys Wells Enterprises (aka Blue Bunny)


After over 100 years of being a a family owned business, the folks behind Blue Bunny have decided to sell the company to Ferrero (the people behind Nutella, Kinder, and Ferrero Rocher). It seems like this idea has been in the works for some time, including Blue Bunny doing some sample Ferrero inspired flavors at one point. That experiment kind of reminds me of their lineup that was inspired by Cadbury back in 2012-2014 (reviews here).

I'm not sure how I feel about this development. Blue Bunny won me as a fan when the blog first started. I got a kick out of how they handled flavors and all the fun treats they made. Unfortunately, like most main stream options, their offerings got smaller and lighter and less impressive. Their treat options are still scattered around my area, but their scoopable stuff is fairly hard to find these days. Speaking of "ice cream"....

images courtesy of Blue Bunny

The other day, @candyhunting pointed out that Blue Bunny Soft had hit store shelves. The four starting flavors are vanilla, chocolate, cookies & cream, and mint chocolate chip. (Update: there is also a strawberry flavor) Am I excited? No. I still haven't tried the soft serve twist cones that came out last year either (because of cross contamination). To be honest, I just can't imagine me liking these. I hate the light cones from Klondike and I envision the twist cones would be similar.

Anyway, if you try these, be sure to check back in and left us know how they are. Who knows how long it will take them to hit my area. Also feel free to comment if you are sad or happy about the acquisition. Hopefully it's a good thing, but only time will tell.

Business Note: Almost forgot. The interview with Mike Wells from a month ago said/implied that no one would lose their job, but then a week ago 183 were let go from their Dunkirk plant in New York. Something about scaling back from 20 products to 5/6 products at this location. That's not cool. (I'm curious to see which novelties made the cut.)

15 comments:

  1. I've never really enjoyed soft serve from the freezer section. Yes, I love my Drumsticks and other freezer bars, but outright without a shell? Feels weird.

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  2. Just a couple of thoughts on this:

    1) I bet Blue Bunny and Breyers will be indistinguishable before too long, and

    2) just the fact that they stated nobody would be let go and then did exactly that turns me off to this brand. They are a huge conglomerate. Find a way to revamp that does a not include downsizing so many people. Shame on them.

    As always, thank you for bringing us all the latest in the ice cream world.

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  3. I feel like consolidation is rarely, if ever, a good thing except for a very small number of individuals.

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  4. @Torque: I've had Schwan's at home soft serve which is/was kind of unique, but I'm afraid that this will be worse than that

    @Bulldoger: Ha! I was tempted to make the Unilever/Breyers comparison as well.

    @Joek: Yeah :(

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  5. Blue Bunny hasn't made actual ice cream for years now. Haven't bought them once since they switched to Frozen Dairy Dessert.

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  6. this is what i think happened here: wells has owned halo top for a while now. they reformulated them to be "creamier" but wha they meant by that was airier, like soft serve. they must've seen how much cheaper that is to produce a pint of, and then voila!

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  7. Since the Ferrero buyout they could seize the opportunity to do a Nutella ice cream. Or even Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream. Chocolate Ice Cream with hazelnut swirl, wafers bits, and hazelnuts. It time for Nutella to enter the frozen aisle.

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  8. @RG: too much tech, not enough milk and cream

    @Alek: that was totally implied in the interview

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  9. Haven't purchased any blue bunny since they switched to frozen dairy dessert. Like to give my money to companies producing quality ice cream

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  10. I still miss Holidoodle ice cream 😂.

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  11. I just tried it , it was so good. Like have soft serve from Dairy Queen. Yum


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  12. I just want to read the ingredients. So many foods are toxic for human consumption these days can’t wait to go to store tomorrow and read that label. Praying clean ingredients so I can purchase one of each. 😃

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  13. I moved to Iowa from Colorado in 2022. And when I got here, I was happy to see that I could get the chocolate Blue Bunny ice cream here and that it was as good as when I was in Colorado.

    Sometime in 2023 Bike late summer, the recipe seems to have changed. The flavor of the chocolate is different and the consistency is different. We make chocolate malts at home. And that's where we all see the difference.

    What changed?

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