<Tr> <Th> Parent </Th> <Td> Unilever (2000--present) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.benjerry.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc, trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet . It was founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, and sold in 2000 to Anglo - Dutch conglomerate Unilever . Today it operates globally as a fully owned subsidiary of Unilever . Its present - day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its main factory in Waterbury, Vermont . </P> <P> 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 . 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 . On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 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 . </P>

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