sear header 2007

1. A Letter from our CEO


At Ben & Jerry’s, the word of the year in 2007 was ‘global.’ Our ice cream business is thriving in the United States and Europe, and we have a growing presence in Asia. So it’s time we started thinking like a Company with a truly global reach. Over the next couple of years, we will be building an organizational structure that better Walt Freese, Chief Euphoria Officerreflects this reality and designing ways of working that allow us to communicate, plan, and execute as a global business.

At the same time, our Company remains firmly rooted in Vermont, where founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield made their first scoop of ice cream twenty-nine years ago and where our Company headquarters reside. And we continue to be guided by a three-part Company Mission that connects us to the progressive vision of Ben and Jerry. This vision calls us to make business decisions based on our values — and to use the power of our business to change the world for the better.

I believe some of the most important work we did in 2007 was to fully embrace both realities — of being a global company and at the same time being a progressive business that is connected to people and communities. It’s the only path forward that makes sense for us — and it’s also an exciting path that few companies have gotten the chance to travel.

Here are some examples of the roads we traveled in 2007:


  • We extended Ben & Jerry’s commitment to pursuing leading-edge sustainable practices in the dairy industry, bringing our Caring Dairy program to all 500 farmers in the CONO cooperative in the Netherlands. And we brought 13 Vermont farmers in our Dairy Stewardship Alliance program to the Netherlands to visit several of these CONO farmers and share best practices.
  • We launched four new Fair Trade flavors, two in the U.S. and two in the European market.
  • We continued to create opportunities for individual and collective action to mitigate climate change through our Lick Global Warming campaign in the US and Climate Change College in Europe.
  • We expanded production in both the U.S. and Europe. We launched a new pint production line in an existing Unilever facility in Henderson, Nevada, which will make Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for markets in the Western U.S. Of course, we were careful to find family farmers who pledge not to treat their cows with rBGH to supply our dairy ingredients for this plant. We also expanded our production in Hellendoorn, the Netherlands for the European market.
  • We remained active and vigilant in the fight against increased labeling restrictions on rBGH in the U.S.
  • We marched on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to protest the FDA’s pending approval to allow cloned animals into the U.S. food supply.
  • Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day grew to include twelve countries around the world, where we gave away ice cream to thank our loyal fans, to make some new friends, and to raise over $250,000 in support of nonprofit partners.

We’re only too aware that we face big challenges to succeeding as a global, values-led business. We know it’s not easy to find authentic ways to make our company values relevant in new countries and cultures. We insist on staying closely connected to our suppliers even though our supply chain is becoming more complex as we play in new markets. And our desire to stay in touch with the grassroots — to connect with regular folks who discover our extraordinary ice cream — is hard to manage on a global scale. But these are the strategies we’ve used to build Ben & Jerry’s success over the last three decades, and we aren’t about to change the recipe now.

I want to thank all the people who make up the Ben & Jerry’s family — from South Burlington, Vermont to places on the other side of the globe. I know we’re up to the challenges ahead and ready to have fun along the way.

Peace, Love & Ice Cream

Walt Freese
       Chief Euphoria Officer