Update: this version confirms the approximate number of employees laid off at Blue Bell's Wilmington transfer station.

A listeria outbreak at Blue Bell Ice Creameries plants discovered early this year is making itself felt in Wilmington and surrounding markets. As part of its efforts to combat the bacterial contamination, the Brenham, Texas-based company is shutting down its plants and its 23-state distribution network, which includes a hub in Raleigh and a transfer station in Wilmington, which opened April 1, 2013.

The Raleigh hub, through Wilmington, distributed to markets in eastern North Carolina, including Wilmington, Jacksonville, Greenville, New Bern and Fayetteville, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

“At this point we are not serving the area,” Jenny Van Dorf said. “When we return to market, due to our limited production and distribution, we will not be distributing Blue Bell products in Wilmington. We hope that one day we will return, but cannot commit to that at this time.”
 
When it announced the arrival of Blue Bell products in the Port City and beyond, two years ago, Blue Bell Creameries said that eight to 10 employees would staff the transfer station, located at 3334 U.S. Highway 421. Van Dorf confirmed Monday afternoon that "approximately 10" employees were affected by the transfer station layoffs.
 
Blue Bell’s CEO and president Paul Kruze on Friday announced the company’s “agonizing decision” to reduce the size of its work force and take other cost-cutting measures, including furloughs and salary reductions, until the plants are contamination free and can return to production. That process, he said in a video on Blue Bell’s website, is “taking longer than we anticipated.”
 
“We are all part of one team, and we tried to keep everyone on the payroll for as long as possible,” Kruze said, but added that since production will start up “in a more limited way, the company does need to reduce salaries as well as the size of its workforce.”
 
“We have to make sure we are financially strong enough to get back to market for our employees, our communities and our customers,” Kruze said. “We are working with our laid-off employees in whatever way we can assist them.”
 
Blue Bell products have been available locally at Lowes Foods, Wal-Mart, Piggly Wiggly and Walgreens stores, plus a few independent grocery and drug stores. On March 13, the ice cream company issued a limited recall of products after some customers in Kansas and Oklahoma fell ill with listeria infection. The recall was expanded April 20 to include all Blue Bell products.