Here's The Scoop

Israeli media descends on Ben Cohen,
the co-founder of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream empire.

RACHEL NEIMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

B

en Cohen was tired, run Cohen worked on an ice cream distribution to grocery stores and
ragged on a whirlwind tour truck. He also got his friend a job, then to the Grand Union chain of
through the Holy Land. but Mr. Greenfield quit after one supermarkets.
The co-founder of ice cream day.
In 1984, the company went
empire Ben & Jerry's awoke on
"He had his sights set on the public to finance the opening of a
the third day of his first trip to Is- medical profession," Mr. Cohen new plant.
rael to find his local franchisees says.
The company also went head-
had excitedly set up an interview
Mr. Cohen dropped out of col- to-head against Haagen Dazs,
schedule of rock-star proportions. lege and went back to being an which had tried to prevent dis-
Reporters were ushered in at ice cream man.
tributors from handling both
half-hour intervals. TV crews
He then studied pottery, jew- companies' wares.
were everywhere.
elry-making and organic gar-
The lawsuit was eventually
It was a lot of high-powered dening and did an assortment of settled out of court. Thus Ben &
publicity for a business founded odd and colorful jobs.
Jerry's entered the corporate are-
by two childhood friends who
"Finally, I ended up in a small na.
made their mark by dressing town in upstate New York called
Ben & Jerry's' Israel branch
down — not up. But Ben & Jer- Paradox, working with emotion- got started, like so many other
ry's' low-key approach has long ally disturbed children," he says. events in the company's history,
been blessed by the attention it
In the meantime, Mr. Green- "by chance."
attracts.
field had not been accepted to
Ten years ago, Israeli fran-
Mr. Cohen was in Israel re- medical school and was working chisee Avi Zinger was a New
cently for the official opening of as a laboratory technician in York-based ex-Israeli looking for
the new Netanya Ben & Jerry's North Carolina.
a solid business to bring back to
ice cream parlor.
"By this time," recounts Mr. Israel.
Between his Saturday night Cohen, "we had both realized we
His experience was in retail-
arrival and his Thursday morn- really weren't getting where we ing, not in food, but his pitch to
ing departure, Mr. Cohen visited wanted to go. So we decided to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Masada, the change our courses and head worked.
Dead Sea and the Ben & Jerry's there together."
"We said, 'Sounds like a good
Yavne factory.
The pair decided to enter the idea,' " says Mr. Cohen.
"It reminds me of the factory home-made ice cream field and
Thus in late 1988, at the height
we had when we
were that size 12
years ago," he says.
"It brings back old
memories when our
business was di-
rected toward pints
in stores, of the
times when we were struggling relocate in a "place with warm of the international boycott of Is-
to survive."
weather, a rural college town."
rael, one of the first internation-
Pint sales still represent some
After scouting around, they al food chains entered the Israeli
85 percent of Ben & Jerry's' U.S. found Burlington, across the bor- market.
net sales, but struggle they do der from where Mr. Cohen had
Mr. Zinger's Israeli franchise
not. The company, publicly trad- previously lived.
has flourished. There are now 11
ed over-the-counter in the Unit-
Although the weather was ice cream parlors (including Ne-
ed States, earned profits of $7.2 anything but warm, there was tanya) out of a planned 20 or 22.
million in 1993 on sales of $140 a university and Mr. Cohen knew
A Haifa store will open just be-
million.
the area.
fore Pesach, and a second store
The company recently posted
Moving into an abandoned gas in the north will open this sum-
its first loss, of $800,000 in the station, the pair began renovat- mer.
third quarter of 1994, but its new- ing and they opened their doors
The franchise began selling to
ly appointed CEO Bob Holland in May of 1978.
Hyper-Col and Super-Sol mar-
intends to combat the trend by
The ice cream parlor was pop- kets at the end of 1993, then
expanding its international op- ular and it was there that Ben & added Ha-Gal ha-Yarok markets
erations, the largest of which so Jerry's gained the personality it to its roster.
far is in Israel.
projects, even in its present-day
In 1994, Ben & Jerry's ice
It's a far cry from the leaky corporate form.
cream appeared in Co-Op Blue
Burlington, Vt., garage where
Expansion came following a re- Square and Hypershuk markets,
Mr. Cohen and partner Jerry quest to supply ice cream to a lo- as well as being distributed to
Greenfield opened their first cal restaurant.
some 200 mini-markets country-
store.
"It occurred to us we might be wide.
The two grew up in Merrick, able to sell our ice cream to oth-
The Hebrew press cast a jaun-
Long Island, and met in their ju- er restaurants in the area, too," diced eye on Mr. Cohen's visit,
nior high-school gym class. Mr. says Mr. Cohen.
criticizing him for coming only af-
Cohen admits they were "the two
Road sales were soon the most ter competitor Haagen Dazs was
widest kids in the field."
profitable side of the business, es- licensed in Israel.
As a high school senior, Mr. pecially after Mr. Cohen began SCOOP page
46

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ISRAEL DIGEST

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—$1 EQUALS 2.9830 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 3114195

Teva To Distribute MS Drug In U.S.

Israeli firm Teva has signed a

distribution agreement with
the U.S. pharmaceutical con-
cern Marion Merrell Dow
(MMD) for which Teva has re--
ceived $25 million.
The joint venture, Teva/Mar-
ion Partners, will distribute

Copaxone, a drug used in the
treatment of multiple sclerosis
(MS). Teva will produce the
drug in Israel and sell it in
North America through its sub-
sidiary, the Lenarnon Compa-
ny,

Israel's Diamond Exports Sparkle

Israel's diamond exports by 66 percent to $158 million
reached $728 million in the first compared with $95 million last
two months of the year, 24 per- year. U.S. exports were $363
cent higher than the same pe- million, 13 percent higher than
riod in 1994. last year.
Exports to Japan increased

Teva Can't Make Prozac Ingredient

Israeli firm Teva will not be al-
lowed to manufacture fluoxe-
tine, the active ingredient in the
anti-depressant Prozac, for the
next three years, the Tel Aviv
District Court ruled.
Ruling on a suit filed by U.S.
manufacturer Eli Lilly, Judge
Eliyahu Winograd decided that

Teva will be allowed to produce
the popular drug beginning in
1998.
Teva filed a request to begin
manufacturing fluoxetine as of
Jan. 1, 1995, when Eli Lilly's
Israeli patent expired. At that
time, Eli Lilly asked for a tem-
porary injunction against Teva,

SMART Move For United Airlines?

Rada Electronic Industries of renewed and a second SMART
Israel is negotiating a sale of its CATS system was purchased

SMART CATS commercial avi- by BA at a $2 million invest-
ation inspection system to Unit- ment.
ed Airlines, Rada announced.
BA's new system is simil
United would use the system to the one being negotiated
to maintain its Boeing 777s, with United.
considered the new standard
Other SMART CATS com-
for commercial airliners.
mercial clients include US AIR,
Rada's initial contact with Continental, Air Mauritius,
United was made at the end of China United and the mainte-
last year, when Rada's contract nance company serving JFK
with British Airways (BA) was International Airport.

Nestle Ready To Make Sweet Deal

Israeli firm Osem announced it
is negotiating with Swiss-based
multinational Nestle concern-
ing both strategic partnerships

and distribution.
Osem CEO Dan Propper said
his company would distribute
Nestle products in Israel.

Unemployment Figures Disputed

Palestinian unemployment fig-
ures issued by the Israel Cen-
tral Bureau of Statistics are
willfully misleading and seri-
ously underestimate the extent
of joblessness and economic dis-
tress in the territories, an An-
Najah University economics
professor has charged.
According to the bureau, un-
employment in Judea and

Samaria, excluding Jericho, av-
eraged 7,8 percent last year,
with male joblessness reaching
8.6 percent.
By contrast, Professor
Hisham Hawartani quotes a
Palestinian employment sur-
vey which found that unem-
ployment totaled 47 percent in
the West Bank and 58 percent
in Gaza.

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