Don't Monkey with a Good Thing

Dairy Foods, May, 2001

In his 24-years in the food industry, Yves Couette has probably never been subjected to public scrutiny such as he has since taking the helm of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., last November.

While Couette has plenty of experience in business, much of it specifically in ice cream, Ben & Jerry's is as much a living legend as it is a business. Its social mission is as important to that legend as its ice cream, which helped launch the ultra-pre mium sub-category.

Ben & Jerry's was purchased in May 2000 by Dutch conglomerate Unilever, and the appointment of Unilever veteran Couette left many wondering if B&J's unique hippie capitalist culture, was on the verge of extinction. Well, so far no one has had to call in the Sierra Club.

With the exception of a bumpy start (Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield told the press that Couette wasn't their first pick for the job) Couette has kept things cool. In keeping with Couette's promise to "deliver on Ben & Jerry's social commitment," the company recently collaborated with the American Red Cross, the Tom Joyner Foundation (a non-profit organization that provides assistance to students at historically black colleges) and KaBOOM!, a Wash ington, D.C.-based group that builds safe and accessible play spaces for kids.

And anyone fearing that B&J's ice cream has lost its punch had a chance to find out on May 2. The company celebrated its anniversary as it has each year since 1979, by giving out free cones at its scoop shops.