Ben & Jerry's
Bennett ( Ben ) Cohen (co-founder ), Jerry Greenfield ( co-founder )
Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream manufacturer, whose products are also available in Germany since 2002. Ben & Jerry's is a company of the British-Dutch Unilever Group. The main operation is located in Waterbury, USA. The European range is manufactured in Hellendoorn in the Netherlands.
- 4.1 Free Cone Day
Company History
1977 visited the two friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield a course for making ice cream at Pennsylvania State University. The company Ben & Jerry's was founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont with a starting capital of $ 12,000. The first store was opened by the two in a converted gas station in Burlington.
1980, production was moved to an old mill, where the ice cream was first packaged in containers, so-called pints for sale. In 1981 the first franchise operation was opened. 1984 and 1987 tried the competitor Häagen- Dazs to restrict the sale of Ben & Jerry's, what Cohen and Greenfield strained two lawsuits against the Häagen- Dazs parent company Pillsbury Company and won both processes. 1988 received both the prize " U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year " (small business of the year in the U.S.), which was awarded by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Since August 2000, Ben & Jerry's is part of the Unilever Group, which bought the company for about 326 million U.S. dollars. 2001 eco-friendly packaging imported from nichtgebleichter cardboard, which was amended in 2006 of quality and cost reasons.
Distribution
In Germany, the products are mainly available in packaged form in supermarkets, gas stations and fast food restaurants. The cups are available in 500 ml and as so-called Shorties with 150 ml capacity in Europe. In addition, there are twelve shops, mostly in large cinemas, in which the products are also offered openly. These franchise stores are called " Scoop Shop " and are widely used in the United States.
Ben & Jerry's products are currently available in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Cyprus.
The products run in Germany under Unilever / HB's business.
Products
There are currently 53 flavors of ice cream in the U.S. and twelve varieties in Germany and Europe, with constantly new varieties are created and old set. The most popular varieties in Germany are Cookie Dough, Half Baked and Cherry Garcia ( named in honor of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia ), while in the UK Phish Food and Chunky Monkey in the Netherlands are the most common varieties. In addition to ice cream are available in the stores, and Frozen Yogurt (a kind of frozen yogurt, which is a popular dessert in the U.S.) and milkshakes.
The ice creams will be expanded to Fairtrade products since 2005.
" Flavor Graveyard"
For all the flavors that have been taken off the market or did not enter into production, there is the factory in Waterbury a " flavor graveyard " ( Cemetery of flavors). It is an imitation of a real cemetery with grave stones for each " buried " variety. Meanwhile, such a " cemetery " was also established in the English Clapham Common ( part of London ).
Social Commitment
Ben & Jerry's is involved in a variety of ways in different social areas and projects. This is since the founding years of a credo of the company and has not changed by selling to Unilever. Examples are the " Ben & Jerry's Climate Change College " - a project funded by the company international climate change program that trains young people from different countries to climate ambassadors. The idea goes back to the Dutch Polar expert Marc Cornelissen. International partners of the project is the WWF.
The Caring Dairy program, which advocates for a sustainable dairy industry is also one of the company projects, as well as "Cool your jets". Since 2005, all employees are required to a " climate - ticket " to purchase when booking a flight, which precludes attendance is enforced at a climate protection project to neutralize the carbon dioxide emissions caused by air travel. In early 2007, Ben & Jerry's has announced to produce carbon-neutral in Europe to 100 %.
Free Cone Day
To celebrate the birthday of their first Eisshops Cohen and Greenfield in 1979 the "Free Cone Day" ( about: day of free ice cream cone ) were introduced. Since then, the day is celebrated annually shops in all Ben & Jerry's world, and there on a Tuesday in April as a thank you to all customers Gratiseis. At the same time collects Ben & Jerry's donations for a local social institution.