Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. are dedicated to the creation and demonstration of new corporate concept of liked prosperity. Their mission statement consists of three interrelated parts: product, economic and social. Underlying the mission is the determination to seek new and creative ways of addressing all three parts, while holding a deep respect for individual inside and outside the company, and for the communities of which they are a part.

Product: To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and related products in a wide variety of innovative flavors made from Vermont dairy products.

Ben & Jerry's is gradually switching over their containers from the traditional cardboard to the ECO-Pint, an environmentally friendly, unbleached paperboard. They are beginning with their #1 selling flavor, World's Best Vanilla. The unbleached packaging material had to meet environmental, commercial, and FDA requirements. A global search was launched to find a material that would bend properly to the rounded shape, as well as, withstand the transporting process and temperatures. The material decided on for the ECO-Pint is an unbleached, brown (kraft) paperboard with an external clay coating to allow the label to be printed. (Press Release, 1999)

Ben and Jerry's has redesigned its distribution network, creation more company control over sales and more efficiency in distribution of its products. Under new arrangement, Ben and Jerry's increased it direct sales calls by its own sales force to all grocery and chain convenience stores and established a network where no distributor of Ben and Jerry's products will have a majority percentage of the company's distribution. The distribution arrangement puts Ben and Jerry's in a better position to control their product sales and implement more efficient domestic distribution. Basically, Ben and Jerry sells it and the distributors deliver it.

The work team at Ben and Jerry's have overtime developed varied types of general "teamwork" concepts and team specific structures unique to specific department needs. At any one time there can be a variety of interdepartmental teams working on specific long-term or short-term projects. In general, there is no company wide policy, standard or definition for what a work team should look like or how it should function.

Two long-time rivals, Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs, look to be intensifying their rivalry. Unilever, the world's leading ice cream marketer, has recently acquired Ben & Jerry's. Unilever's brand line previously consisted of Breyer's, Good Humor, Popsicle, and Klondike. Unilever was pushed into purchasing Ben & Jerry's based on Nestle, the number two ice cream marketer in the world, and Haagen-Dazs' recent joint venture, Ice Cream Partners. Unilever's purchase of Ben & Jerry's led their partnership to turn into Nestle's acquisition of Haagen-Dazs. (Reporter, 2001)

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Approximate Word count = 2118
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)