Word: hollanders
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With their stock melting, ice cream icons Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have created a new flavor for their management repertoire: the Holland Heave...
...this is the lean, fat-free 1990s, and superpremium ice-cream sales have been flatter than Nebraska, which makes Ben & Jerry's just another company with a management problem. So forget all the sugary explanations heard since CEO Robert Holland said on Sept. 27 that he would resign. The party line: Holland accomplished his mission, solving production problems and launching critical expansions into new products and countries; now the company needs a CEO with greater marketing skills...
...reality, those skills have been needed from the start--and the big scoop is that Holland's days have been numbered for months, maybe even a year. He came to Ben & Jerry's in February 1995 and soon after began to clash with the forceful Cohen, who remains chairman and, along with Greenfield, still controls 42% of the company. Cohen denies any serious clashes. "That's not the way it felt to me," he says. He acknowledges that Holland's stint was short but says "changes in the marketplace" dictated his departure. Other insiders, though, say Cohen wasn't happy...
...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...