Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has left the ice-cream manufacturer in protest at parent company Unilever’s decision to stop its social activism.
Greenfield shared a letter on social media signed by the firm’s co-founder Ben Cohen, claiming he could not “in good conscience” continue to work for a business that had been “silenced” by Unilever.
Earlier this year, Ben & Jerry’s filed a legal case with a New York court claiming that its chief executive David Stever was being removed by Unilever over the company’s political and social activism.
The filing said that Unilever had “repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever’s social mission”.
The ice-cream company, which was acquired by the conglomerate in 2000, is well known for its stance on social justice, and has often spoken out on issues, for example advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In 2021, it announced it would stop selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The company has also been a vocal opponent of US President Donald Trump.
At the time of the merger in 2000, there was an agreement that sought to protect the brand’s social mission.
Greenfield argues that this pledge has now been flouted, writing: “It is profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.
“If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”
The brand comes under the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which is due to be spun out of Unilever as a separate division on the Amsterdam stock market in a matter of months.
Last week, Cohen and Greenfield published an open letter to potential investors and the board of the Magnum Ice Cream Company ahead of its capital markets day, calling for Ben & Jerry’s to be released from its parent.
In it, they said: “We believe that the founding values are central to what Ben & Jerry’s is, and cannot simply be discarded out of convenience or under political pressure.
“We fought to ensure our social justice mission was protected by Unilever when the company was acquired, but over the past several years, this has been eroded, and the company’s voice has been muted.”
A spokesperson for the Magnum Ice Cream Company said the company had been in dialogue with Cohen and Greenfield and was grateful for their contribution.
They said: “We disagree with [Greenfield’s] 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.”
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