This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

This entry in the Big Company, Small Town series features one of the great recent American business success stories, as this powerhouse brand came from very humble beginnings only 30 years ago.

Ben & Jerry's was started in 1978, when Long Island, N.Y., natives Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield used a $12,000 investment to open up a homemade ice cream scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont. The Ben & Jerry's shop grew rapidly in popularity, and by 1980 they began packing pints to sell in grocery stores. By 1985, the company's sales were more than $9 million, and it began building its manufacturing plant in nearby Waterbury, Vermont. The plant in Waterbury was then opened to the public for tours of Ben & Jerry's ice cream making operations, creating a tourist attraction for the town, which has a population of around 1,700.

Although Ben & Jerry's was bought in 2000 by Unilever (NYSE: UN) for $326 million, the company still maintains its local roots, with its headquarters in South Burlington and its factory still open for tours in Waterbury. The founders of Ben & Jerry's, while no longer holding any positions within the company, have worked with Unilever to make sure it remains as socially conscious as when they ran it, keeping that small-town, grassroots feel that made it such a success worldwide.

To this day, Ben & Jerry's maintains its Free Cone Day, which Ben & Jerry started to honor the first anniversary of their ice cream shop.

Be sure to check out more Big Company, Small Town posts.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

One might assume that chocolatier Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) got its name from the small Pennsylvania town it is located in, population 12,771. However, the truth of the matter is that the company is named after its founder, Milton S. Hershey, and that the town, which was formerly known as Derry Church, was renamed Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1906 because of the popularity of the chocolate.

Milton Hershey built the milk processing plant he would use to make his milk chocolate in 1896 with profits he made from selling his caramel company, and three years later, in 1899, the "Hershey process" was born. In 1903, Hershey began construction of a chocolate plant in what would later become Hershey, Pennsylvania. The manufacturing plant, which now covers over two million square feet of manufacturing space, is now the largest chocolate factory in the world.

Just as important to the town's prosperity as the chocolate manufacturing plant is Hersheypark, an amusement park that is affiliated with the Hershey Company. The theme park is a huge employer for the town, a tourist attraction, and a branding device for the Hershey brand.

Hershey, Pennsylvania is truly a place where the company and the town have merged into a single identity. While there, you can tour Hershey's Chocolate World, Hershey Museum, and visit Hersheypark, all of which feature the history of both the company and the town, which will be forever intertwined.

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