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7 SCOOP SHOPS
Scoop Shops Ben & Jerry’s began as a single ice cream scoop shop in 1978, and though our business has expanded wildly since then, our roots are still firmly planted as a scoop shop company. Most are owned and operated by independent franchisees, although Ben & Jerry’s also operates a small number of company-owned stores. Some of our scoop shops are what we call a PartnerShop®, owned and operated by a nonprofit organization. By the numbers: United States, Canada, & Bahamas
Caribbean
Europe (13 countries)
Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, Israel)
Latin America (Mexico)
Franchise System — B&J’s Responds to With the economy in recession, 2008 was a very challenging year for the quick service restaurant industry in general and our scoop shops were not immune to this development. We opened fewer scoop shops than a typical year as we took some time to stabilize our model within the new economic reality. In addition, more shops closed in reaction to the troubled economy. We responded in a variety of ways to support our franchisees: Ben & Jerry’s Chocolates After much research and testing, we believe we are finally on track with a quality, all-natural line of chocolates that we have started testing in 27 scoop shops. In early 2009, we intend to expand the program to 52 stores and launch a Grab N’ Go program that will be available in all of our our shops. Jump Start Program We have continued to offer the Jump Start program to support struggling franchisees as they work to put their business on more solid footing. The Jump Start program, which offers additional operational and marketing support and royalty waivers, supported 25 shops in 2008. Pricing We held the price of ice cream, yogurts and sorbets stable for franchisees. With costs of dairy and fuel rapidly rising and the competitive marketplace many shops are facing, we considered this measure critical. Marketing and Sponsorship Support We increased the marketing support for our scoop shops, including money for local advertising, and we funded a new sponsorship program that will help franchisees to further develop their business by sponsoring events aligned with Ben & Jerry’s values. Gift Card Program We made progress on implementing a national Gift Card program in scoop shops without adding significant cost burdens to franchisees. Better Communications Improving communications was again a top priority for us in 2008. We made tremendous strides in that direction by introducing the Rolling Cone (a new and improved extranet for our scoop shop operators and managers), System Wide and Regional Calls, and Regional Newsletters in addition to our regular visits, mailings, calls and training programs.
Strengthening the Brand Global Retail Team and Global Franchise Meeting 2008 marked the first year that we regularly met as a global retail team. And once again, Ben & Jerry’s franchisees got together at the annual Global Franchise Meeting to network and share best business, environmental and social practices. In line with a longstanding Ben & Jerry’s tradition, this meeting kicked off with a community service project in a small fishing town called Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun, Mexico. A primary school in a low-income neighborhood there needed a facelift, and — under a hot sun — our dedicated franchisees cleared trash and debris, planted flowers and shrubs, painted the exterior of the classroom buildings, installed new playground equipment, and overhauled the bathrooms. We also pledged $10,000 to the school for new technology. The 2008 community project left its mark not only on the school grounds, but also in the hearts of the participants who got a chance to connect with the local culture and make a real difference. New Store Design We invested in a new store redesign in 2008, and tested this design in three U.S. locations and one in the U.K. Cost consciousness and the use of sustainable materials were driving considerations in the design process; our flagship store in downtown Burlington, Vermont, for example, utilized sustainably sourced wood, recycled and recyclable aluminum, ceramic tile, low-volatile organic compounds paints, and even recycled milk crates and bottles for some of the lighting. Elements from this new design will be rolled out to the system in 2009.
Scoop Shop Community Action Ben & Jerry’s franchisees take great pride in being part of their community, and virtually all translate our Social Mission into action. In 2008, Ben & Jerry’s franchisees directly contributed almost $500,000 worth of time, money, and ice cream (more than one million scoops, in fact) in support of local community projects and nonprofit organizations. Free Cone Day On April 29, 2008, we celebrated our 30th annual Free Cone Day. More than 1,500,000 free cones were given away in 18 countries. Events in conjunction with some Free Cone Day participating scoop shops included fundraisers for local, national and international charitable organizations. In the United States we raised over $215,000 in donations, and globally thousands more euros, pounds, Hong Kong dollars, and Canadian dollars for hundreds of nonprofit partners. Franchise Social Mission Award We established the Social Mission Award to honor franchise owners who embody the very essence of what Ben & Jerry’s was built on: the idea that businesses have a responsibility to give back to the communities from which they draw support. While all of our franchisees are involved in their communities, Social Mission Award winners have truly shined, and the 2008 winner was Doug Barrese, owner of the Charlottesville, VA scoop shop who supported everything from a local Food Bank, to a Girl Scout troop, to blood drives, to the Institute for Autism. We couldn’t be more proud of Doug as an ambassador of Ben & Jerry’s, and congratulate him once again! Scooper Bowl In 2008, for the 23rd year, Ben & Jerry’s was once again able to send a team from our South Burlington office down to Boston in early June to participate in the Scooper Bowl, a gathering of ice cream companies and ice cream lovers joining together in support of a good cause — raising money for cancer research. The Vermont folks teamed up with Massachusetts area franchisees and scoopers and treated over 20,000 Scooper Bowl attendees to Ben & Jerry’s. All in, our team helped raise $354,000 for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s children’s programs.
Diversity Awareness Our Company’s statement of values includes the goal to create economic opportunities for those who have been denied them, and we’ve always felt that our franchised scoop shops offer a great opportunity to reach this goal. At the end of 2008, there were 211 distinct owner/operator groups for the 397 independently owned and operated Ben & Jerry’s shops in the United States and Canada. Of these owner/operator groups, we estimate 18 percentwere led by women and another 18 percent were led jointly by a male/female team. Furthermore, approximately 19 percent of our total owner/operator groups were led by people of African-American, Native American, Asian, or Hispanic ancestry. PartnerShop® Program A PartnerShop® is a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop that is owned and operated by a youth-serving nonprofit organization. Ben & Jerry’s waives the traditional franchise and royalty fees for a PartnerShop® scoop shop and provides customized training to support the unique needs of the social enterprise. In turn, a PartnerShop® scoop shop offers youth facing barriers to employment a unique opportunity for developing job skills. All proceeds from PartnerShop® stores flow back to the parent nonprofit to support social programs. 191 young people were trained and supported in 2008 in eight United States Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop® scoop shops. The PartnerShop® scoop shops continued to face significant challenges, particularly given the serious economic conditions that a great number of our scoop shops were struggling with in 2008. Three shops closed: The Latin American Youth Center shop in Washington, DC; the YWCA of Fort Worth and Tarrant County shop in Ft. Worth, Texas; and Juma Ventures’ operations in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The PartnerShop® model, in its current form, is not consistently achieving the outcomes that Ben & Jerry’s or our partners desire. With that in mind, we are thinking creatively about how we can evolve the model to maintain the best aspects of the program in a way that improves outcomes for everyone involved. Eight shops remained open at the end of 2008. They are:
Youth Training Programs — Cones to Careers In much the same spirit as our PartnerShop® program, Ben & Jerry’s Cones to Careers program continues through our Vermont company-owned stores. This initiative provides youth who face barriers to employment with job skills and hands-on work experience through internships in our company-operated scoop shops. We partner with nonprofit organizations to ensure that our interns have the pre-employment training they need and on-going support to achieve their goals. In 2008 we continued our successful partnership with Linking Learning to Life (LLL). Their mission is to improve the educational success and career prospects for youth through school, business and community partnerships. In 2008 we trained four LLL candidates at our Burlington scoop shop. Two were retained as permanent hires. Our company-owned scoop shops also continued to partner with LLL and the Vermont Lake Monsters baseball team (the Single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals). We trained four youth to work at an ice cream cart during weekend games throughout the summer. For the record, we are no longer running the Cones to Careers program in our company-owned store in New York. We are also sad to say that, after a hot-and-cold three-year run, we discontinued our Scoopers Making Change Program in 2008, which supported scoopers in Ben & Jerry’s franchised scoop shops in designing and accomplishing community action projects. |
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