June 24, 2010

Yarnell Ice Cream Company in Searcy (White County), which opened for business in 1932. By 1970, it had reached $1 million in sales. Yarnell’s had sales in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee and was the only remaining ice cream company in Arkansas until the company ceased operations for a time in 2011, citing a poor economy combined with its inability to obtain financing or find a buyer. In November 2011, Schulze and Burch Biscuit Company of Chicago, Illinois, acquired the Yarnell’s plant and most of the recipes at auction for a reported sum of $1.3 million. The company relaunched the Yarnell’s brand in April 2012, with a new mascot, “Scoop,” and a fifty-six-ounce “sqround” box, which was square with rounded edge.