"I lie awake wondering how to keep pistachios from getting soggy"
montrealgazette.com:80/business/pages/990610/2706363.html
An article on B&J with DAD mentioned.
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Thursday 10 June 1999
Ben & Jerry taste irony
Hiring a gunmaker as CEO and fighting union isn't really at odds with our
message of social responsibility, ice-cream moguls say
MARY LAMEY
The Gazette
There aren't many business big
shots known to millions simply
by their first names. Even Bill,
the world's most powerful
computer geek, has to tag on a
"Gates" when he gets on the
phone.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
have no such problem. The
laid-back pair behind the Ben &
Jerry's ice cream empire are on
a first-name basis with anyone
who has ever had a lick of
Chunky Monkey or Chubby
Hubby.
The partners were in Montreal
yesterday, serving up their
high-fat wares and later
delivering the keynote address
at a trade show and networking
forum organized by Federation
CJA. During an interview at the
de Maisonneuve Blvd. franchise,
the pair were approached
repeatedly by smiling
well-wishers and autograph-seekers who greeted them by name.
The story of how the boyhood friends parlayed $12,000 and a fledgling
Burlington ice cream shop into a $200- million-a-year business has become
part of legend. Equally well-known is their commitment to donating 7.5 per
cent of the company's pre-tax profits to social causes. Ben and Jerry support
small business, sustainable development and the family farm.
"Their message makes perfect sense. If you give to your community, it will
come back to you," said Morrie Baker, owner of three B&J franchises in
Montreal. Baker yesterday handed out cheques totaling $5,400 to the
Children's Wish Foundation and the YM-YMHA.
Like Vanilla and Chocolate
Cohen and Greenfield continue to preach the gospel of profitability and
social responsibility, two concepts they say go together as well as vanilla
and chocolate. Their talk last night was expected to draw between 500 and
600 listeners.
"It isn't a hard message to sell, especially if you bring ice cream along,"
Greenfield said with a smile.
(When it comes to the division of labour, Greenfield does most of the
business talking. Asked what his end of the bargain is, the slightly more
hippie-looking Cohen said, "I'm the colour.")
The company's growth has not been painless, Greenfield acknowledged. A
well-publicized essay contest to find a new chief executive officer resulted in
the hiring and, 18 months later, the departure of Robert Holland Jr.
A union-drive at the company's St. Albans, Vt., plant, which management
opposed vigorously and the hiring of Perry Odak, formerly of U.S. Repeating
Arms, a gun manufacturer, as Ben & Jerry's chief executive have garnered
headlines. Odak has held the post for two years and recently signed a
contract extension, Greenfield said.
These things are at odds with the ice cream guys' do-good image.
Greenfield said he understood that the press enjoyed the "irony" of such
controversies.
In the end, Ben & Jerry's is a pro-union company, he said. The fight was
over whether 21 maintenance workers could vote to unionize, or whether
the vote should include all the plant's employees. The Labour Department
ruled in favour of the maintenance workers who are currently bargaining
their first contract.
As for Odak, he has a long history of activism and support for progressive
causes, Greenfield said.
The new chief executive has helped the company fix production and
distribution problems and claw its way back to profitability. Ben & Jerry's
recently reported a 20-per-cent jump in net sales, to $50 million U.S., with
net profit of $1.2 million. More than 85 per cent of its sales are made
through grocery stores. The company has about 5 per cent of retail ice
cream sales in the U.S.
There were a few years in the middle of the decade when consumers turned
away from high-fat treats like premium ice cream., but the trend has
reversed itself. Today, the company can chart the decline in sales of its
no-fat sorbets and the levelling off in demand for frozen yogurt. Ice cream
sales are skyrocketing, Greenfield said.
"Let's face it, that other stuff just doesn't taste as good."
Both continue to consume their own product. Greenfield describes himself as
a "recreational" ice cream eater, who favours Phish Food (chewy chocolate
with caramel and marshmallow swirls and fish-shaped bits of fudge). Cohen
is "more of a critical eater," who regularly chows down on Cherry Garcia
(vanilla with chocolate chunks and cherries).
Cohen and Greenfield plan to expand their company farther. Last year, the
company signed a licensing agreement with Calgary-based Delicious
Alternative Desserts, to make and pack Ben & Jerry's in Canada. The ice
cream is now available in grocery stores across Ontario. The company has
also expanded into France and Britain.
"We want to keep growing, but in a way that is consistent with our values,"
Greenfield said.
They have ceded day-to-day control of the company to management, but
can't help but get involved in micro-management issues.
"Some nights I lie awake wondering how to keep pistachios from getting
soggy," Greenfield admitted.
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Gotta try 'Phish Food'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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And, more on ice cream, in Canada!
thestar.com:80/thestar/back_issues/ED19990609/news/990609NEW01b_CI-ICE9.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 9, 1999
They've got the heat licked
KEN FAUGHT/TORONTO STAR
Eighty-year-old Francisco
Gonzalez compares flavour
notes with his 3-year-old
grandson Anthony on the steps
of Vaughan Rd.'s Dutch Dreams
ice cream store yesterday
afternoon.
Ice cream lineups 'unbelievable'
By Josh Brown
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
Theo Aben loves ice cream so much he decided to
create his own flavour.
The ice cream shop owner named the peach-passion
fruit combination Theo-Theo after himself and his son,
Theo Jr.
''I'm always fooling around with flavours,'' said the
owner of Dutch Dreams, an ice cream parlour on
Vaughan Rd. ''I knew peach was popular and
passion fruit is so good that it's only meant for
heavenly people.''
Whether it's
Theo-Theo or
chocolate mint, ice
cream is the hottest
summer treat. In
1996-97 Canadians consumed about 10.37 litres per
person according to Statistics Canada - that's about
150 cones each.
In 1997-98 more than 300 million litres of ice cream
were produced in Canada, mostly tubs of chocolate,
vanilla and strawberry, the country's three favourite
kinds. That's up 2.1 per cent from the year before.
And with most ice cream parlours only open in the
summer, expect long lineups at local ice cream shops
as long as the sunny weather continues.
''The lineups are unbelievable,'' said Arthur (Rosy)
Rosenzweig, president of St. Clair Ice Cream Ltd.
''We start making ice cream in March for the heavy
spring-summer season.''
The hot weather also brings more customers to
Aben's Dutch Dreams. Some are so loyal they will
wait in long lines, although Aden and his son try to
serve most lickety-split.
''On weekends, the line-up starts at noon and
people are still waiting for cones late at night,'' Aben
said. ''We can go through as many as 40 tubs of ice
cream a day.''
Iced desserts were invented in China and introduced
to Europe in the late 1600s. It is reported that the
first ice cream cone was served at the 1904 World's
Fair in St. Louis.
Today, there are hundreds of ice cream
manufacturers with flavours ranging from vanilla to
Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey - banana ice cream
laced with chunks of walnut and chocolate.
Some companies have even tried adding pickles,
pretzels, muffin pieces and cake to ice-cream.
''I usually get vanilla or chocolate, the old
favourites,'' said Angela Herwin, at Dutch Dreams.
''Vanilla has such a nice delicate flavour and you
never get tired of it.
''You have to eat it slowly and savour it,'' she said.
''Don't gobble it down. Make it last as long as
possible.''
It's not until the final stages of production that ice
cream gets its flavour. First the raw ingredients -
which include butterfat, milk solids and sweetener
(usually sugar) - are mixed together.
The solution is mixed forcefully at 67.7C, chilled in a
plate cooler and aged for 12 hours before the
flavouring and condiments such as chocolate chips,
cookie dough and smarties are added.
When the ice cream comes out of the final machine it
is warm and slimy. It takes an extra 12 hours of
refrigeration to turn it into the savoury treat sold in
stores.
And as long as the lid is on tight and it's in a cold
freezer, ice cream can last forever.
But eating double and triple scoops is dangerous for
weight-watchers.
A half cup of vanilla ice cream has 142 calories and
contains about 11 per cent butterfat, according to
Isabelle Neiderer, of the nutrition department for the
Dairy Farmers of Canada.
The extra calories won't stop Judith Goodwin-Hall
from enjoying a vanilla soft cone in Nathan Phillips
Square.
''It's cool and refreshing and it tastes good,'' she
said. ''The only art form I have to eating an ice
cream cone is to start from the top and go to the
bottom.''
Not Geraldine Fitzgerald. She likes to eat her ice
cream cones the European way - with a spoon.
''It's very practical,'' she said. ''Your tongue
doesn't get numb and you can control the drips.''
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good eating!
Don
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