Walmart Brand Ice Cream Is Made By The Same Company Behind Pricier Brands

Buying from stores' private label brands can be a great money-saver for shoppers amid rising prices. Even as they're mainly looking for value, they might be surprised by the manufacturers who make some store brand products, like the classic candy brand behind Costco's Kirkland Signature jelly beans. Walmart's Great Value ice cream is produced by a century-old business that also makes more expensive brands.

Wells Enterprises produces Blue Bunny, Halo Top, and Blue Ribbon Classics ice cream in addition to Great Value, as well as red, white, and blue Original Bomb Pops ice pops. It's been making Walmart's store brand for decades, using milk delivered daily from a farm 20 minutes from its Iowa manufacturing plant. Cones and cookies for ice cream treats are made at a nearby baking company, and Wells can turn out over one million ice cream sandwiches in a day. The Le Mars, Iowa-based company produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream each year across its brands, leading the town of 10,000 to be dubbed the Ice Cream Capital of the World.

Company co-founder Fred H. Wells started a home milk home delivery business in 1913, before teaming up with his brother, Henry C. Wells, to launch Wells Ice Cream Company of Sioux City in 1925. They sold the company in 1929, but were soon itching to make ice cream again. They held a "Name that Ice Cream" contest in 1935 to find a new name, and the winner was Blue Bunny, Wells' first brand.

Walmart sells Great Value ice cream in pints and 48-ounce tubs, as well as sandwiches, bars, and cones. The tubs, which come in more than a dozen flavors, from vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry (which didn't fare well in our ranking of store-bought strawberry ice cream brands) to Fudge Tracks and Unicorn Sparkle, are $2.97 on Walmart's website. Pints sell for $1.87.

Other Wells-made brands will cost Walmart shoppers more. Halo Top, a light ice cream with fewer calories and sugar and more protein, is more than two and a half times the price. Its product lineup, which looks different in 2025, only comes in pints, which Walmart sells for $4.98. Blue Bunny ice cream in 46-ounce tubs — two ounces smaller than Great Values' — sells for $3.87, 90 cents more. Walmart's brand beats out other popular ice creams, too. Breyer's 48-ounce tubs also have a posted price of $3.87, and Turkey Hill's same-size tubs are $3.52.

Wells was acquired by Ferrero Group, the Italian company whose brands include Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, in early 2023. However, it remains an independent operating company. It has a Wells Visitor Center and Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, with an interactive virtual experience and movie about how the ice cream is made, as well as games and free flavor samples. Visitors can also order from more than 40 flavors on the menu in the ice cream parlor.