Yarnell’s 2nd coming praised

LITTLE ROCK — The golden doors of the Capitol building opened Thursday as the “Hallelujah” chorus summoned a man in white carrying a carton.

Yarnell’s Ice Cream is back.

The first bite of the first carton, “Homemade Vanilla” of course, went to Gov. Mike Beebe.

“It’s been so long, at least what, 8 or 9 months,” Beebe said before going back for a second spoonful. “I think it’s better.”

Schulze & Burch Biscuit Co. bought the shuttered Yarnell Ice Cream Co. manufacturing plant in Searcy and the recipes for about $1.3 million at a bankruptcy auction on Nov. 30.

The company already has approximately 100 employees at another plant in Searcy that makes toaster pastries and granola bars.

Schulze & Burch President Kevin Boyle said his Chicago-based company felt there were many similarities between its existing business and the ice cream company. He said many Yarnell’s employees were interested in coming back to work.

And “we’d be acquiring an 80-year-old brand that Arkansans are passionate about,” he said.

Sixteen former employees were hired back of the roughly 200 who lost their jobs when the plant closed, Yarnell’s spokesman Natalie Ghidotti said.

The Chicago-based company reopened the plant for production in March and cartons should be available at Wal-Marts next week and at Krogers and Harp’s within the next month, Boyle said.

The new cartons have rounded corners and a lid that seals more tightly, Boyle said. The cartons are also larger at 56 ounces, instead of 48 ounces. The same recipes were used, he said.

“We’re bringing you the same product back that you know and love. You’re just getting more,” Boyle said.

The Capitol rotunda was filled with people debating their favorite flavors who cheered as Boyle announced flavors in the company’s new, reduced line-up. Beebe pointed out his favorite is chocolate.

Regular flavors offered will be butter pecan, cookies and cream, death by chocolate, homemade chocolate, homemade vanilla, homemade strawberry, real vanilla, Rocky Road and Ozark black walnut. Yarnell’s will also offer frozen yogurt in five flavors - blueberries and cream, peaches and cream, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla - and no-sugar added “Guilt Free” ice cream in butter pecan, chocolate and vanilla. Plus, the chocolate and vanilla ice cream sandwiches are coming back.

Boyle said Yarnell’s will focus on getting top-selling items back on the shelf first before considering other flavors, perhaps offering them for limited times or seasonally.

Yarnell’s, founded in 1932, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August. It had about 200 employees when it shut down at the end of June, with about 150 working in Searcy. The company closed after years of financial instability.

When it filed for bankruptcy, it listed more than $15 million in debt, including $4 million secured by property and equipment to the Arkansas Development Finance Authority and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Searcy Mayor David Morris said the factory closing last summer stunned and shocked the community.

“Yarnell’s and the operation was on many, many prayer lists of many congregations throughout the summer and the fall,” Morris said.

Morris called the ice cream a Searcy icon.

“God bless the production of Yarnell’s Ice Cream,” he said.

Beebe, who spent much of his adult life in Searcy, agreed.

“It belongs to all of Arkansas, but it’s a Searcy tradition,” Beebe said.