j redirects here . for the beverage company see bartles and jaymes . ben & jerry s homemade holdings inc. type subsidiary industry food processing founded burlington vermont may 5 1978 ; 38 years ago 1978 05 05 founders ben cohen jerry greenfield headquarters south burlington vermont u.s. key people jostein solheim ceo 1 ben cohen co founder jerry greenfield co founder products ice cream parent unilever website www.benjerry.com ben & jerry s homemade holdings inc trading and commonly known as ben & jerry s is a company that manufactures ice cream frozen yogurt and sorbet . it was founded in 1978 in burlington vermont united states and operates globally as a subsidiary of the anglo dutch conglomerate unilever . its headquarters is in south burlington vermont with its main factory in waterbury vermont . contents 1 history 2 original flavors and sundaes 3 controversies 3.1 commercial 3.2 political 3.3 social 4 global locations 4.1 former markets 5 wages 6 see also 7 references 8 further reading 9 external links history edit jerry greenfield left and ben cohen right in 2010 . ben cohen and jerry greenfield were childhood friends from new york . while greenfield finished college he found himself unable to make his way into medical school . cohen dropped out of school . 2 in 1977 cohen and greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from pennsylvania state university s creamery . cohen has severe anosmia a lack of a sense of smell or taste and so relied on mouth feel and texture to provide variety in his diet . this led to the company s trademark chunks being mixed in with their ice cream . 3 on may 5 1978 with a 12 000 4 investment the two business partners opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown burlington vermont . in 1979 they marked their anniversary by holding the first ever free cone day now an international annual celebration at every ben & jerry s store . 3 in 1980 they rented space in an old spool and bobbin mill on south champlain street in burlington and started packing their ice cream in pints . in 1981 the first ben & jerry s franchise opened on route 7 in shelburne vermont . in 1983 ben & jerry s ice cream was used to build the world s largest ice cream sundae in st. albans vermont ; the sundae weighed 27 102 pounds 12 293 kg . that same year the cows on their cartons were redesigned by local artist woody jackson . 5 in 1984 h agen dazs wanted to limit distribution of ben & jerry s in boston prompting ben & jerry s to file suit against the parent company pillsbury in its now famous what s the doughboy afraid of campaign . 6 in 1987 h agen dazs again tried to enforce exclusive distribution and ben & jerry s filed its second lawsuit against the pillsbury company . in 1985 the ben & jerry s foundation was established at the end of the year with a gift from ben & jerry s to fund community oriented projects ; it was then provided with 7.5 % of the company s annual pre tax profits . in 1986 ben & jerry s launched its cowmobile a modified mobile home used to distribute free scoops of ben & jerry s ice cream in a unique cross country marketing drive driven and served by ben and jerry themselves . the cowmobile burned to the ground outside of cleveland four months later but there were no injuries . ben said it looked like the world s largest baked alaska . 7 in 1988 the two men won the title of u.s. small business persons of the year awarded by u.s. president ronald reagan . 8 also that year the first brownies were ordered from greyston bakery which led to the development of the popular chocolate fudge brownie flavor . 9 in 1992 ben & jerry s joined in a co operative campaign with the national non profit children s defense fund ; the campaign goal was to bring children s basic needs to the top of the national agenda . over 70 000 postcards were sent to congress concerning kids and other national issues . in 1995 they hired robert holland jr. as ceo after holding a yo i m your c.e.o. essay contest as part of the search . 10 holland left after 20 months following philosophical differences and was replaced by perry odak in 1997 . 11 in 1989 ben & jerry s revealed their opposition of the use of rbgh recombinant bovine growth hormone in all their products . this genetically engineered hormone is sometimes given to cows in order to boost milk production but ben & jerry s does not support this practice and is in favor of utilizing less chemically intensive ingredients for the safety of consumers and the environment . 12 in 1994 ben & jerry s the inside scoop written by fred chico lager former ceo of ben & jerry s ice cream was published . this book tracks the history of how ben & jerry s ice cream got started . the book focuses on how two real guys built a business with a social conscience and a sense of humor . 13 ben & jerry s ice cream branch at the united square shopping mall in singapore . in april 2000 ben & jerry s sold the company to anglo dutch multinational food giant unilever . 14 unilever said it hopes to carry on the tradition of engaging in these critical global economic and social missions . although the founders names are still attached to the product they do not hold any board or management position and are not involved in day to day management of the company . 15 in 2001 ben & jerry s u.s. completed the transition to eco pint packaging which packaged all pint flavors in environmentally friendly unbleached paperboard eco pint containers a decision it later reversed . the use of brown kraft unbleached paperboard had been a critical first step toward a totally biodegradable pint made without added chlorine . due to what they described as increasing supply quality and cost challenges ben & jerry s discontinued their use of the eco pint in 2006 transitioning to a pint container made out of a bleached paperboard that it said was more readily available . 16 on earth day in 2005 when a vote in the u.s. senate proposed the opening of the arctic national wildlife refuge to oil drilling ben & jerry s launched a protest by creating the largest ever baked alaska which weighed 900 pounds 410 kg and placed it in front of the u.s. capitol building . 17 18 in march 2009 cyclone dairy 19 launched an advertising campaign and a website to promote its milk products which purportedly came exclusively from cloned cows . 20 on april 1 2009 april fool s day ben & jerry s announced that it was behind this fake company . ben & jerry s had created the tongue in cheek hoax to raise awareness of the increasing presence of products from cloned animals within american food 21 22 and to campaign for a tracking system of cloned animal products . 23 the hoax was revealed on april fool s day with the message we believe you should have the right to choose which foods you eat and not to eat cloned foods if you don t want to . and that s why ben & jerry s believes we need a national clone tracking system so people and companies can know where their food is coming from . 24 in 2010 jostein solheim a unilever executive from norway became the new ceo of the company and had this to say about the transition my mantra that i ve repeated a hundred times since starting at ben & jerry s is change is a wonderful thing he said . the world needs dramatic change to address the social and environmental challenges we are facing . values led businesses can play a critical role in driving that positive change . we need to lead by example and prove to the world that this is the best way to run a business . historically this company has been and must continue to be a pioneer to continually challenge how business can be a force for good and address inequities inherent in global business . 25 on february 24 2012 ben & jerry s released a new greek frozen yogurt line which came in several flavors strawberry shortcake blueberry vanilla graham raspberry fudge chunk banana peanut butter 26 and vanilla scoop shop exclusive 27 on april 12 2013 pineapple passionfruit vanilla honey caramel and liz lemon were added to the greek yogurt line . 28 the liz lemon flavor was inspired by a character of the same name created by actress tina fey as the main character on the nbc television sitcom 30 rock . 29 in 2013 ben & jerry s committed to making their products gmo free in support of mandatory gmo labeling legislation . 30 original flavors and sundaes edit a pint of ben & jerry s ice cream main article list of ben & jerry s ice creams the vermonster is a large ice cream sundae served in a vermonster bucket in ben & jerry s scoop shops . its ingredients are 20 scoops of ice cream 4 bananas 4 ladles of hot fudge 3 chocolate chip cookies 1 chocolate fudge brownie 10 scoops of walnuts 2 scoops each of 4 toppings of your choice and whipped cream . it contains 14 000 calories and 500 grams of fat . starting in 2009 the vermonster challenge is an annual charity event held by ben & jerry s in which teams of four compete to finish a vermonster and win free ice cream for a year . 31 chubby hubby consists of vanilla malt ice cream swirled with fudge and peanut butter and containing pretzel nuggets covered in fudge and filled with peanut butter . for the month of september 2009 ben and jerry s in partnership with freedom to marry renamed chubby hubby to hubby hubby in celebration of the legalization of same sex marriage in the company s home state of vermont . the carton featured the image of two men getting married beneath a rainbow . 32 33 34 on march 13 2012 ben & jerry s announced it would be changing the name of one of its ice cream flavors in the uk in support of equal marriage rights for same sex couples . oh my apple pie would become apple y ever after and tubs would feature a gay couple atop a wedding cake decorated with rainbows . 35 chocolate chip cookie dough was temporarily renamed i dough i dough in the united states during the summer of 2015 . this was in celebration of united states supreme court s ruling in support of same sex marriage . the proceeds from sales were to go to the human rights campaign a nonprofit advocacy group for lgbt rights . 36 ben cohen and jerry greenfield appeared on the the colbert report on march 5 2007 to promote their new ice cream flavor stephen colbert s americone dream and cohen s progressive advocacy group truemajority . the company renamed a flavor yes pecan in reference to barack obama s victory in the 2008 u.s. presidential election . they decided in january 2009 to donate all proceeds made on the sale of that flavor to the common cause education fund . 37 on march 2 2011 cohen and greenfield appeared on late night with jimmy fallon and unveiled their new flavor of ice cream late night snack whose carton features a picture of jimmy fallon on