Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood friends living in New York. While Greenfield finished college, but found himself unable to finish studying medicine, Cohen dropped out of college. They came up with the idea to start a bagel company, bagels being a very popular pastry throughout North America. However, once they learned how pricey the bagel-making equipment was, they gave up the idea. In 1977, the two of them completed a correspondence course on ice cream making at The Pennsylvania State University’s Creamery.

One year later, Ben and Jerry raised $12,000 (a third of it borrowed!) and turned an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont into an ice cream scoop shop producing its own ice cream under the name of “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade”. In 1979, Ben and Jerry marked the first anniversary of their business by holding the first-ever “Free Cone Day”, on which customers were given free ice cream all day. This day continues to be celebrated in the same way in their shops around the world.

The next year, the company moved to a different location, where they began packing their ice cream in pints allowing for distribution to grocery shops and restaurants out of the back of Ben’s old Volkswagen Squareback wagon. In 1981, as the story of this fantastic ice cream spread, the demand started rising, which motivated Ben and Jerry to open their first franchised scoop shop in Shelburne, Vermont.

The old gas station, where the famous brand had been founded, was demolished in 1982 to create a parking lot, while Ben and Jerry were up and scooping in their new location on Cherry Street in Burlington. Four years later, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which funded community-oriented projects, was established.

In 1988, Ben and Jerry were proclaimed U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year by U.S. President Reagan, and the award ceremony was held in the White House. During the next couple of years, Ben & Jerry’s came out against the usage of Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) in cattle feed for the cows whose milk was used in ice cream production. They also started a campaign aiming at the satisfaction of disadvantaged children’s basic needs and were also active in finding solutions to other problems the American people were facing.

In 1994, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was introduced to the United Kingdom, which was only the beginning of its European expansion.

In the context of their efforts to only make ice cream out of healthy ingredients (such as milk from rBGH-free cows), Ben & Jerry’s introduced Sorbet in 1996, an ice cream sort made with pure spring water and fruits with no fat, no lactose, and no cholesterol. It was named after the popular “Doonesbury” comic strip character. Even though this particular flavor is no longer produced, other sorbets are still available in their scoop shops.

While Ben and Jerry experimented with the taste of their ice cream a lot, the same could not be said for the packaging. The ice cream packaging was redesigned for the first time after as many as 20 years of their business.

The beginning of the new millennium was a great turning point in this small company’s business. In August 2000, the company was bought by Unilever, a large Dutch-British transnational consumer goods company, whose products include food, cleaning agents and personal care products. However, an independent Board of Directors was created to handle the leadership and the expansion of Ben & Jerry’s social mission, as well as to maintain brand integrity and product quality. In 2003, this renowned ice cream company celebrated its 25^th anniversary, and during the following years it continued to support important social causes and campaigns. Ben & Jerry’s protested in 2007 when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration declared the meat of cloned animals to be safe for consumption, and in 2011, the company supported the Occupy movement.

This brand has received many awards; it supports the rights of animals and children, as well as environmental protection. In addition, its product range includes ice cream with no fat, no lactose, and no cholesterol.

In 2013, Ben & Jerry’s supported the campaign for the obligatory labeling of food products made with GMO ingredients and, in the same year, they started transitioning all of their ingredients to be fully sourced non-GMO. Today, the business operations of this company, whose products are available all around the world, are oriented towards their three missions – their Product Mission, referring to the outstanding quality of their ice creams, their Economic Mission, which is focused on the maintenance of a sustainable financial growth, and their Social Mission with the purpose of using their brand in innovative ways to, in the words of the company itself, “make the world a better place”. With their fantastic ice cream and their support of true values, they sure are succeeding in their missions.

Source: www.mojafirma.rs