Word: hollander
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last week the stock had drifted to $12.13--down from a 52-week high of $19.50 and at roughly the same level as when Holland first walked through the door. While Ben & Jerry's has stalled, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has roared nearly 50% higher...
...Holland won some battles. He persuaded the board to expand into France despite Cohen's resistance, but that victory probably widened the divide between the two. Cohen opposes France's controversial nuclear-testing policies. Holland is something of a social activist in his own right. In Detroit in the 1980s, he created programs to help disadvantaged students graduate high school. Still, clear and early enough were Holland's and Cohen's differences that Holland never moved to Vermont from his home in New York City. Why get comfortable? Holland didn't return calls seeking comment...
...many accounts, Holland did a fair job of running the company, considering the conflicting demands. "His tenure was one of their better periods in a while," says Kim Galle, an analyst at the brokerage Adams, Harkness & Hill. Boosted by a new sorbet line, revenues in the second quarter rose 12% from the same quarter last year. That's on top of an 11% gain in the first quarter. Galle estimates that the company will bring in $171 million this year, vs. revenues of $155 million last year--a respectable 10% increase...
...Holland was one of the few African Americans to head a publicly traded company. That brought both him and Ben & Jerry's a lot of useful visibility. Ben & Jerry's has long favored publicity stunts over traditional advertising. Not that choosing Holland was a publicity stunt--but the manner in which he was hired clearly was. The company staged an essay contest called "Yo! I want to be CEO." It attracted 22,000 applicants and was widely covered in the media. Holland did not enter. He was found through a blue-chip search firm...
...Holland's successes have subsequently been overshadowed. For one thing, the popular new sorbets are pinching sales from ice cream, which is now losing ground in supermarkets to archrival Haagen-Dazs. Holland also imposed a pair of price increases, the most recent taking hold this month and pushing the retail price of a pint of Ben & Jerry's to more than $3 in some markets. That's a hefty charge that could deter even some loyalists. In an ominous sign, Ben & Jerry's last month said earnings in the just-ended third quarter would be below the 35[cents...