Jerry Departs the Ice Cream Empire

Ben & Jerry’s, an American ice cream company known worldwide for its premium homemade ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet, was founded on May 5, 1978, in Burlington, Vermont, by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Selling their products in grocery and convenience stores in over 35 countries, Ben & Jerry’s has been linking business with activism since Cohen and Greenfield wanted their company to be used for good intentions. They are most well known for their variety of flavors of ice cream with creative, unique names, some even inspired by real people. An example is their popular flavor “Cherry Garcia,” which was inspired by the Grateful Dead’s rock band member, Jerry Garcia. Ben & Jerry’s also specializes in inclusivity for those who can’t ingest specific ingredients. They have options to offer customers with non-dairy and vegan diet restrictions.

Cohen and Greenfield were childhood best friends who met in seventh grade and had tons of things in common; therefore, they became friends relatively quickly. These two wanted to start a business after college; however, Cohen dropped out of college and wanted to start the business immediately. Cohen and Greenfield had intentions to run a bagel store at first. However, they later realized that it would be really expensive to run just a bagel store, so they switched to ice cream instead in 1978. Business went very well for the duo, and they started to sell entire pints of their ice cream less than two years after starting their business.

As Ben & Jerry’s grew, the co-owners couldn’t keep it independent for very long because of its rapid growth. They were faced with increasing pressure from shareholders and other competition, and they felt as if managing a massive business wasn’t something only two people could do on their own. In 2000, Cohen and Greenfield sold the company to Unilever as a way to protect the company’s values and to keep the business alive and running. Due to the sale, Greenfield doesn’t co-own the business anymore, and he often speaks about social problems and causes while sometimes criticizing Unilever if he thinks the company has lost track of the initial concept.

After working together for years, Greenfield chose to step away from the company in order to let it find new opportunities independently. While the partnership with Ben & Jerry’s had provided valuable growth opportunities, Greenfield felt that remaining in co-ownership limited the company’s ability to make quick decisions and innovate smoothly. Greenfields’ plan of leaving the co-ownership with the company was to strengthen the leadership, explore new ideas, and respond more effectively to customer feedback and setbacks that might appear in the company’s future. Don’t worry, though, Jerry’s departure will not affect production or access to our favorite flavors.