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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 (16 countries)
Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel)
Latin America (Mexico)
Australia
Franchise System — Riding Out the Recession Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop business had ups and downs in 2009. We saw strong growth in some of our new markets in 2009, including the Nordic countries and Mexico. Our first scoop shop opening in Australia was a huge success, and we grew in cinema locations in Europe. Other markets, however, including many parts of the United States, struggled in the second year of a broad-based economic recession. Two trends in particular hurt business in Ben & Jerry’s U.S. scoop shops: consumers spent fewer dollars eating out; and many chose lower-quality, lower-budget ice cream when they did go out for a treat. On average, we saw a decline in same-store sales in the U.S. from 2008, and we closed more stores than we opened over the course of the year. We responded with several new and strengthened programs and policies to support our franchisees and to help them succeed. Jump Start Program We continued to offer the Jump Start program to support struggling U.S. franchisees as they worked to put their business on more solid footing. The Jump Start program, which offers additional operational and marketing support and royalty waivers, supported 22 shops in 2009. Pricing and Cost Savings We held the price of bulk ice cream, yogurts and sorbets that we supply to franchisees stable for the third year in a row in 2009. In addition, we created a pint rebate program that effectively allows franchisees to purchase pints from us for re-sale at the lowest price available to any retailer in the U.S. We also worked with third party vendors to reduce the cost of other essential materials and services purchased by our franchisees. All three measures directly helped franchisees keep costs down during the recession. Marketing and Sponsorship Support We know that it’s more important than ever to get the word out about our scoop shops and the amazing ice cream we sell when the economy’s sputtering. So, with input from our franchisees, we made a few tweaks to our Magical Media Program in 2009 to give franchisees in the United States more control over how to spend local marketing and advertising dollars. We also rolled out a company-funded sponsorship program that provided some reimbursement to franchisees who sponsored events aligned with Ben & Jerry’s core values. Gift Card Program We implemented a Gift Card program in two regions of the U.S., on the way to a national roll out. Where we have implemented the program, we’re already seeing increased sales and more new customers in scoop shops without adding significant cost burdens to franchisees. Ben & Jerry’s Chocolates We continue to develop and refine the all-natural line of chocolates sold in Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops as a way to help franchisees diversify their product offerings. We expanded the program to include more than 100 U.S. stores selling the Grab N’ Go product line in 2009. We put more resources into testing new products that we hope to roll out in 2010 and beyond.
Strengthening the Brand Global Franchise Meeting Once a year, Ben & Jerry’s franchisees, staff, shop managers, vendors, and guests get together at an annual Global Franchise Meeting to network and share best practices. In true Ben & Jerry’s style, the meeting traditionally kicks off with a community service project in partnership with a local nonprofit organization in the host city or nearby. In 2009 we held our meeting near Fort Myers, Florida. Our community project was a neighborhood revitalization effort to benefit families in the Harlem Heights area, a once- rural farm-working community that has fallen into poverty in recent decades as much of the surrounding area has been developed. We partnered with the Heights Foundation, a grass-roots organization with a mission to bring life-changing opportunities to the families of Harlem Heights and to break the chains of poverty through education and the arts. Our Ben & Jerry’s crew of more than 200 people was divided into teams to work on exterior painting, cleaning up debris, and landscaping at about 20 homes in the neighborhood; painting playground equipment at a neighborhood park; and sorting donations at the local Thrift Store. We estimate that we contributed over 800 hours of labor. The 2009 community project left its mark not only on the Harlem Heights community, but also in the hearts of the participants who got a chance to connect with the local residents and make a real difference in their lives. New Store Design We redesigned the look of new Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in 2008, and we rolled the changes out to our new shops built in 2009. The new design includes many environmentally friendly elements, including sustainably sourced wood, recycled and recyclable aluminum, ceramic tile, low-volatile organic compounds paints, and high-efficiency lighting. We also always use eco-friendly inks in printing artwork for scoop shop promotions and posters.
Ben & Jerry’s franchisees take great pride in being part of their community, and virtually all translate our Social Mission into action. In 2009, Ben & Jerry’s franchisees in the United States directly contributed almost $600,000 worth of time, money, and ice cream in support of local community projects and nonprofit organizations. Free Cone Day On April 21, 2009, we celebrated our 31st annual Free Cone Day by giving away more than 1,250,000 free cones in 19 countries. Some Free Cone Day participating scoop shops also included fundraisers for local, national and international charitable organizations. In the United States we raised over $200,000 in donations, and globally, we raised thousands more in other currencies 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 are the cream of the crop. Our 2009 winner was Tim Watters, owner of the Hawthorne scoop shop in Portland, Oregon. Tim works with children in his community, participates in neighborhood uplift programs, partners with the Special Olympics, and hosts numerous blood drives throughout the year. He also serves on the Board of Directors for a nearby PartnerShop. Scooper Bowl In 2009, for the 24th year, Ben & Jerry’s participated 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. Ben & Jerry’s franchisees in the Massachusetts and Rhode Island area were our workhorses, serving ice cream to thousands of Scooper Bowl attendees, despite lousy weather. Together, all of the participating companies raised $230,000 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. While we do not have a formal program to recruit minorities and women to become Ben & Jerry’s franchisees, we did take some time in 2009 to revise our Virtual Brochure for franchise candidates with an eye towards making the Discovery Process more inclusive and welcoming to minorities and women. These revisions will launch in 2010. By the numbers, here’s our track record on diversity: At the end of 2009, there were 191 distinct owner/operator groups for the 353 independently owned and operated Ben & Jerry’s shops in the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas. Of these owner/operator groups, we estimate 17% were led by women and another 18% were led jointly by a male/female team. Furthermore, approximately 20% of our total owner/operator groups were led by people of color (African-American, Native American, Asian, or Hispanic). These numbers are virtually unchanged from 2008. As for Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop leadership, our Franchise Advisory Council (FAC) is made up of twelve members, representing all four of our regions in the U.S. and Canada. Eight of these members are directly elected by franchisees and four are appointed by the Company. In 2009, one woman and no people of color served on the FAC. At the end of the year, a second woman was elected, so our 2010 FAC will include two women. 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. 143 young people were trained and supported in 2009 in six 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 again in 2009. Two shops closed: the Lifeworks shop in Austin, Texas, and the Houston Works shop in Houston, Texas. The PartnerShop® model, in its current form, is not consistently achieving the outcomes that Ben & Jerry’s or our partners desire. We continue to think creatively about how we can evolve the model to maintain the best aspects of the program in a way that enhances and expands outcomes for everyone involved. Six shops remained open at the end of 2009. They are:
Youth Training Programs — Cones to Careers In much the same spirit as our PartnerShop® program, Ben & Jerry’s has operated a Cones-to-Careers program in previous years, giving internships in our Vermont company-owned stores to young people facing barriers to employment. In 2009, we did not run this program in any of our company-owned stores. We plan to pilot a new version of the program in 2010. Environmental Impacts In 2009, we switched to using a different kind of cup for serving Ben & Jerry’s cold drinks such as smoothies and shakes. The cup we had been using was made from a corn-based resin (PLA), but we ran into some performance and cost challenges. We decided to switch to a polypropylene cup which offered the best combination of durability, cost and environmental impact of all the options we evaluated. |
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