One-half of the duo who founded Ben & Jerry’s Homemade shared his take on business and social responsibility Wednesday with alumni of the University of Northern Colorado’s Monfort College of Business and other business leaders.
Jerry Greenfield, who founded the ice-cream company with business partner Ben Cohen, addressed an audience at the Seawell Ballroom of the Denver Performing Arts Complex as part of the university’s newly launched Building Business Excellence Speaker Series.
“When Ben and I started, we were two young guys failing at everything we were trying to do,” Greenfield said. “We didn’t really think of ourselves as going into business. We were just opening an ice- cream parlor.”
As the company began to expand in the 1980s, Ben & Jerry’s led a contentious campaign to sell its products to the same distributors as one of its competitors.
“We felt like our business was just becoming another cog in the economic machine,” Greenfield said.
The experience left Greenfield and Cohen feeling disenchanted, until they decided to add a “spiritual side” to their business.
Today, the South Burlington, Vt.-based company, which is owned by Unilever, is active in issues that include social justice, environmental protection and sustainable food systems. It recently made a commitment to become 100 percent fair trade by the end of 2013, Greenfield said.
“Business is really the most powerful force in our society,” he said. “Business is very single-minded and directive in trying to make money, so it puts blinders on itself and doesn’t look at all the huge social and environmental impacts that are created in this single- minded pursuit of profits.”
Not everyone agrees with the Ben & Jerry’s model.
A consumer-advocate group last month called on the company to drop its “all natural” claims. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says 48 of the 53 Ben & Jerry’s flavors have ingredients that aren’t natural.
While the Food and Drug Administration has no definition of “natural,” the CSPI since 2002 has called on the company to make changes.
Unilever recently agreed to discuss the matter, said Mi chael Jacobson, CSPI executive director.
Rita Wold: 303-954-1488 or rwold@denverpost.com
As the Ben & Jerry’s world churns
1978: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield open their first store in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vt.
1980: They begin selling pints of ice cream in local grocery stores, delivered in Ben’s VW wagon.
1981: First franchise opens in Shelburn, Vt.
1983: Time magazine says Ben & Jerry’s has “the best ice cream in the world.” First out-of-state franchise opens in Maine.
1984: Vermont-only public stock option offered. Sales go over $4 million.
1985: Ben & Jerry’s Foundation is established to give 7.5 percent of annual pretax profits to community building projects.
1987: The “Cherry Garcia” flavor is introduced.
1988: 319 employees and 80 stores in 18 states and Canada.
1993: Net sales hit $140,328,000.
1994: Cohen steps down as chief executive, and the company begins a search for new CEO by hiring a search firm and conducting an essay contest called “YO! I want to be CEO!”
1998: The company rejects a buyout offer from Dreyer’s.
2000: Purchased by consumer-products company Unilever for $326 million.
2004: Revenue is $272 million.
2010: 750 Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops franchised worldwide.
Sources: Ben & Jerry’s, Nexis and Hoover’s
