L'entreprise Ben & Jerrys (document en anglais)

This morning we are going to talk about a company where we would like to work for different reasons. This company is Ben & Jerry’s. After a quick introduction/presentation about the firm we will explain you why this company is one of the best to work. We will go through 5 parts:

- An innovative brand

- Social responsibility

- Environmental commitment

- Humanitarian actions

- Employees happiness

First of all, an introduction of the firm:

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are friends since college and they created this company in May 1978 while renovating a gas station.

The two friends started their ice cream careers and invest 12 000$ in the company.

They soon became popular in the local community for their new flavours, made from fresh Vermont milk and cream and large portions of whatever ingredients they felt was tasting good on the day of the making. Well-known for popular ice-cream flavours, this company is qualified like a super premium ice cream. In April 2000, Ben & Jerry's sold the company to Anglo-Dutch multinational food giant Unilever.

According to you, what is the most competitive company?

(attendre leurs réponses) The main competitor on the super premium ice-cream market is Haagen-Dazs.

This duo showed to the world that it’s possible to set a pleasant working atmosphere. Their motto confirms it : « If it’s not fun why do it ? ».

So now we would like to show you why we have chosen this company.

⇒ First, it’s an innovative and original firm

The brand stands out due to many product editions honoring some celebrities or events. They are always on the top of innovation. For example, an ice cream “Imagine Whirled Peace” was created as a tribute to the song “Give peace a chance” by John Lennon.

There is also a special ice-cream for Obama’s election with taste “Yes Pecan”.

This brand is also really well-known thanks to the originality of their ad, products and stores.

We can see an original store in California. The packaging is also innovative and the funny ad too (Montrer photos sur slide).

This firm is also well known for events such as free cone day. During this event, a van (Montrer tableau) travels around the country and gives free ice-creams. If you are interested, in Toulouse it’s in April.

⇒ Let’s turn our attention to the question of social responsibility.

Ben & Jerry's has a huge respect to the internal and external staff (partners, farmers ...). For the brand, it is impossible to expand and offer new products without considering the different actors, opinions and needs.

That’s why, Ben & Jerry's wants to offer only products made with ingredients from fair trade.

In 2006, Ben & Jerry's became the first ice cream company in the world to use Fair trade-certified ingredients. They decided to label their product with "Max Havelaar": this label is an international NGO that brings together representatives of producers.

Now we will show you a short video on this topic.

⇒ After researches, we also found out that Ben & Jerry has an ecological mind.

Let’s see how Ben & Jerry’s deals with the environment and global warming:

First of all, in 2002, they launched the “Lick Global Warming” campaign in order to analyze and make improvement into the firm to improve their footprint. They are concerned by environmental issues. That’s why they are working throughout their operations to reduce their carbon emissions. They provide annual reports to show this improvement.

Here is some of Ben & Jerry’s work.

1. They are seeking ways to support the climate justice movement. Climate justice movement aims to protect vulnerable populations in developing countries from the effects of climate disruption.

2. They will support the development of renewable energy around the world.

3. They are working to constantly improve efficiencies at their manufacturing plants. It means reducing carbon emissions.

4. They are working with dairy farmers to make them aware of how to reduce on-farm emissions.

Also, they pay attention to waste production.

Any manufacturing of products creates waste.

Ben & Jerry is aware of that. As the manufacturing of ice cream creates dairy waste too intense, they can’t send it

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