Industry: Dairy products

Headquarters: Manchester, NH

Founder: Samuel Kaymen

Founded: 1983

Markets: United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada

Interviewed: Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO

Stonyfield Farm produces and sells healthy, organic dairy products. The company makes the number-one selling brand of organic yogurt and number-three overall yogurt brand in the United States.The firm’s founders set out to try to prove that a business could make the environment and family farmers a priority and still succeed and be economical; they have proven that bottom line orientation is not a prerequisite for business success. Stonyfield Farm is committed to keeping artificial ingredients out of food. To that end, the firm uses only pure all natural and organic ingredients, with no preservatives or artificial flavors, colors and sweeteners. Stonyfield only uses premium milk from farmers who have pledged not to use the synthetic bovine growth hormone, rBGH. All of the organic ingredients are produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones or toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers.

Stonyfield Farm’s community involvement philosophy is based on the idea that business needs to be part of the solution to environmental, social, and community problems. The mission is to show consumers that they can relate to commerce in a different way, beyond just the exchange of money and products. Stonyfield wants to change the way consumers view business from a way to make some people rich at the expense of others, to a force that can do genuine good in communities and the world.

Stonyfield Farm

1050 Perimeter Road,

Manchester, NH 03103

www.stonyfield.com

Stonyfield Farm has the mission to promote healthy food, healthy people, and a healthy planet. And its product, internal business operations, and community involvement programs support these goals. For its philanthropic initiatives, Stonyfield focuses solely on environmental causes. It supports these by 1) using its own best environmental practices, 2) donating to environmental causes, 3) supporting family and organic farming, and 4) educating the public.

This philosophy is an integral par of how Stonyfield does business, and the company has seen three main benefits to it. It has helped gain customer loyalty, decreased the time it takes Stonyfield to introduce and bring to market a new product, and increased media attention. In short, its unique approach to community involvement (such as randomly giving out hundreds of samples) has increased brand awareness.

It supports causes through partnerships with monetary donations, in kind donations, and services. Stonyfield donates 10% of its profits to environmental nonprofits, provides an advertising and education platform on its yogurt covers, has instituted creative recycling programs for its products, and invests in tree planting and renewable energies to offset the emissions from yogurt production. Eligibility for donation from Stonyfield is pretty simple — interested nonprofits must help the environment, show results, and promote Stonyfield somehow.

This last requirement is especially crucial, as president and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg has found that nonprofits often overlook these business needs. He stresses the need to remain adamant in requiring that your business gets something out of the donation, as this exposure can be a central part of marketing efforts for the company. Hirshberg also stresses the need for these partnerships to be long-term and consistent with company values. Short-term relationships that are not truly grounded in the values and actions of the business will provide neither business not community benefits, and will ultimately backfire. Stonyfield has been patient with its relationships, waiting years until they are fully developed and continuing dialogue with partners during conflicts.

On top of partnering with nonprofits, Stonyfield also helps its farmers. It does this by supporting family and organic farmers, and helps farmers with the financially daunting task of switching to organic. Over 80% of its products are certified organic, in part due to these close relationships with farmers. The company is in fact working to double the number of organic family farmers in the country through increased sales and awareness.

By Louise Doyle Based on interview with Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, conducted by Susan Hyatt.

More information on Stonyfield Farm can be found at: http://www.stonyfield.com/