Blue Bell Ice Cream will begin servicing Memphis and its surrounding areas, including Oxford, on Jan. 11.

“The Memphis market will include western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, West Kentucky, northern Mississippi and the Missouri Bootheel,” said Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell. “We continue to make good progress in our three production facilities. This has allowed us to increase our production capacity and build enough inventory to properly service the Memphis area sooner than expected.”

Blue Bell will bring back 23 employees at its Memphis branch distribution facility who were put on paid furlough earlier this year, bringing the total number of furloughed employees brought back to work to about 1,000 company-wide.

The company had massive recalls and shut down plants after several strains of Listeria monocytogenes were discovered and deaths were reported from bacteria in ice cream. The bacteria was found in several states.

For now Blue Bell is producing the following flavors of ice cream: buttered pecan, cookies ’n cream, Dutch chocolate, homemade vanilla, peppermint, pistachio almond and The Great Divide.

12-pak homemade vanilla cups and 12-pak homemade vanilla and Dutch chocolate cups are also available in stores.

For more information and to search if ice cream is currently available in your area, visit www.bluebell.com and click on Blue Bell Locator.