About Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., was founded in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, USA, by childhood friends and dedicated hippies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. The two friends started their ice cream careers with a $5 ice cream making correspondence course from Penn State University and a $12,000 investment ($4,000 of which was borrowed).

They soon became popular in the local community for their innovative flavours, made from fresh Vermont milk and cream and large portions of whatever ingredients they felt tasted good on the day of making! While they both disagreed at times over flavour combinations, what they did both agree was that they were in this business to enjoy themselves as well as earn a living. As Jerry put it "If it's not fun, why do it?"
 

Over the following years, Ben & Jerry's moved from being a one parlour operation to manufacturing tubs of our increasingly famous ice cream for distribution to retail outlets nation-wide and now world-wide. However, despite the growth, both Ben and Jerry made sure not to forget one of their original mottos that "business has a responsibility to the community in which it operates".

In 1988 Ben & Jerry's created a document called the Statement of Mission.

We are dedicated to the creation & demonstration of a new corporate concept of linked prosperity. Our mission consists of three interrelated parts:

Product, Economic and Social.

Ben & Jerry's works to employ its Mission Statement in as many day-to-day business decisions as possible so that the company is profitable and the community can profit by the way we do business.

Click here to go direct to Ben & Jerry's reference library where you'll find practically all the information you'll need on Ben & Jerry's!