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Blue Bell Creameries opens Delray Beach center
Sweet business: Francisco Perez-Azua, left talks with Blue Bell Branch Manager Jim Wiederholt, right, Mike Malone of the Delray chamber, background left, and Vincent Nolan, Delray's new economic development director. Perez, a local architect, heads the chamber's economic development committee. He also preceded Nolan as the city economic development director.
By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — It was a cold, sweet moment Wednesday evening as Blue Bell Creameries officially became a part of the greater Delray business community.
Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell cut the ribbon on a 13,000-square-foot distribution center located west of the Turnpike on Atlantic Avenue that will serve South Florida and the Treasure Coast with help of city officials and representatives of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. The company treated those in attendance to samples of its ice cream and tours of its 25-degrees-below-zero warehouse.
The center employs 28 and represents an investment of about $4 million, branch manager Jim Wiederholt said.
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County announced in February that Blue Bell was building the distribution center Atlantic, but Wiederholt said work on the facility began well before that.
“It’s been two years and more to get this up and running,” Wiederholt said. “We’ve been anxious to get it open.”
Blue Bell sells its product in 18 states, and is the No. 3 ice cream brand in the country. It’s used a center in Miramar to supply retailers in the region, but demand increased to a point where a second center was necessary. In 2009, it bought the 2.2-acre site in suburban Delray.
Eighteen-wheelers haul in ice cream from plants in Alabama, Texas and other parts of the country to the Delray center. A fleet of smaller trucks then delivers the product to grocers between Fort Lauderdale and Vero Beach.
Most of the 28 employees working Delray transferred from the Miramar operation, but the company did add six new employees. Wiederholt has been with Blue Bell for 25 years and asked to be moved to Delray.
“We’re happy, excited to be a part of this community,” Wiederaholt said. “This is where we wanted to be.”
Delray Mayor Woodie McDuffie and city Commissioner Adam Frankel were on hand for the occasion even though the plant is well outside city limits. Delray Chamber President Mike Malone and Chairman Gregg Weiss also attended the event.
Gregg Weiss and Mike Malone of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, left, assist Blue Bell Creameries' Jim Wiederholt cut the ribbon on the ice cream company's new distribution center. Delray Commissioner Adam Frankel and Mayor Woodie McDuffie also were on hand for the event.
Tough choice: Francisco Perez-Azua decides what flavor of ice cream he wants to sample. Serving him are Blue Bell employees Jerry Jones, left, Isaiah Palmer and Henry Paine.
Cold comfort: Efrain Sanchez in Blue Bell's warehouse, which is kept at minus 25 Farenheit.
