Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Quits As Unilever Brawl Escalates
Ben & Jerry’s
ice-cream activism has moved into full-on meltdown, with co-founder Jerry Greenfield announcing he is quitting the brand after 47 years, calling parent company Unilever’s decisions
“profoundly disappointing.”
In a statement posted on the X account of Ben Cohen, the brand’s other co-founder, Greenfield said that for two decades Unilever had kept its
promise to give Ben & Jerry’s freedom to pursue its outspoken social mission, focused on peace, justice and human rights.
“That independence, the very basis of our sale to
Unilever, is gone,” he wrote, “and it’s happening at a time when our country’s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women
and the LGBT community. Standing up for the values of justice, equity, our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of
upsetting those in power.”
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But the relationship between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s has eroded since 2021, when the ice cream maker said it would stop sales in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank. The move drew backlash, including calls to divest from Unilever, and Greenfield and Cohen defended it in a New York Times op-ed. Unilever then sold the
Israeli business to a local licensee — a decision Ben & Jerry’s sued over before settling.
Since then, the brand has filed a second lawsuit accusing Unilever of trying to
dismantle its independent social mission board. The board itself has taken unusually strong stances, including calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide,” one of the rare times a
U.S. company has used that language. Unilever has sought to dismiss many of those claims, but the case is still pending.
Cohen, 74, has remained outspoken on multiple fronts. Two weeks
ago, he was arrested in Washington, D.C., for disrupting a Senate hearing, part of a protest unrelated to the company. And at the first investor day for Magnum Ice Cream Co. — the new standalone
business housing Ben & Jerry’s and other frozen brands — Cohen appeared outside the hotel urging the spinoff to #FreeBenAndJerrys.
Unilever completed the
“demerger,” spinning off its ice-cream portfolio into Magnum, which is scheduled to begin trading publicly this fall. Unilever retains a 20% stake. While ice cream was Unilever’s
fastest-growing category in the second quarter, with underlying sales growth of 7.1%, Reuters reports, “the division has lagged in terms of margins.”
Unilever, in a statement to
the Wall Street Journal, acknowledged the clash: “We disagree with his perspective and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben &
Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world.”
Analysts note that while the escalating tensions may have accelerated Unilever’s decision to spin off ice cream, it also
reflects a broader CPG trend. Kraft Heinz is splitting up, Keurig Dr Pepper is dividing its cold beverage and coffee businesses, and Nestlé is said to be weighing sales of underperforming
brands — all part of the hunt for sharper shareholder value as consumers shift their buying habits.
Source – Indonesia News
