This week, Mark Ezell is leaving Purity Dairies, the business that made his family into one of the more notable legacy names in Nashville's business community. The numbers are staggering: more than a century in business; $200 million of annual sales; 450 employees; 100 million containers of milk, ice cream and other products shipped each year. Whether it was yellow milk jugs or a long-running TV ad campaign with actor Jim Varney (aka Ernest), it was hard to miss one of Nashville's most notable brands.
Ezell's story is all the more remarkable because it began with failure.
In 1913, Ezell's great-grandfather joined 11 other farmers to create the Nashville Pure Milk Co., which opened a pasteurization plant on Broadway. Customers didn't like the taste, and the group declared bankruptcy three years later. Two Ezell family members bought the business at auction and built a still-operational plant at 1401 Church St. Mark Ezell's grandfather went to work there, then left to start his own company. A series of acquisitions in 1997, 1998 and 2001 reunited the two dairies that share origins in the same family.
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