Ben and Jerrys
Introduction: Overview of the Case
The corporation of Ben and Jerrys first began on May 5, 1978 in a small town called
Burlington located in Virginia. The founders of this ice cream parlor were Ben Cohen and
Jerry Greenfield with only limited funds of $8,000, they produced a famous nationwide
parlor that caters to millions of people. Specialty flavors of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,
Cherry Garcia, Rain Forest Crunch, and frozen yogurt are attractions and symbols to the
corporation. Establishing themselves as a top tier competitor in the ice cream industry. The
first shop was opened in an abandoned gas station, making their drive and motivation
during that time inspiring.
Ben and Jerrys sold their premium ice cream products to supermarkets, convenience
stores, grocery stores, and restaurants. They marketed themselves successfully, in which
many consumers held Ben and Jerrys ice cream as a standard in comparison with other ice
cream. From only a few thousand dollars, the business grew to a million dollar
corporation. During the 1990s, they experienced losses like no other, by losing $1.87
million on sales of $148.8 million.
The mission statement consisting of the social mission, product mission, and economic
mission dictated the behavior, practices, philosophies, ideologies, and principles of the
corporation. Showcasing the ice cream firm as unusual in comparison with the
fundamental practices of Corporate America. Their operations consists of globally
expanding, improving the quality of a broad community, making, distributing, selling the
finest quality ice cream, increasing value for shareholders, and providing employees with
rewards and benefits.
Ben and Jerrys are always looking to improve the quality of ice cream by creating,
innovating, and promoting their decisions and integrating them within the mission
statement to function in a consistent and repeatable manner.
Problem Statement:
With losses of $1.87 million on sales of a record high in net sales of $148 million, the
focus is on the income statement. The income statement shown in Exhibit 1 illustrates the
problem of spending too much on expenses. The budget on expenses was not clearly
thought out, as in 1994 Ben and Jerrys lost a significant amount of money. If this type of
budgeting continues, the ice cream parlor will stabilize itself, allowing new competition to
enter the market. One factor to this expense is the hiring of 537 employees to work for Ben
and Jerrys. When the season of winter enters, these employees will not be useful because
business definitely be slow.
The productivity level will be low, and therefore should not be wasting money on labor
