Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has stepped away from the ice-cream brand after nearly 50 years, according to a post by the other founder, Ben Cohen.
Cohen’s post shared what he said was a letter from Greenfield in which he called it one of the “hardest and most painful decisions” he had ever made.
Greenfield accused Unilever of silencing the company, saying its independence to speak up on global issues was “gone”.
“If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all,” Greenfield said.
The decision came despite a merger agreement meant to safeguard the brand’s social mission, Greenfield added.
“That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement” that he and Cohen had negotiated with Unilever, Greenfield wrote.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company, a new division of Unilever that is set to be separately listed in November, said that it disagrees with Greenfield’s perspective and has sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world.
Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Last week, Cohen said that amid tension with Unilever, the brand had attempted to engineer a sale to investors at a fair market value of $1.5bn-$2.5bn but the proposal was rejected.
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have been at odds since at least 2021 when the ice-cream maker said it would stop selling in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s has sued its owner over alleged attempts to silence it and called the conflict in Gaza “genocide”.
At the time a Unilever spokesperson said: “Our heart goes out to all victims of the tragic events in the Middle East. We reject the claims made by B&J’s social mission board, and we will defend our case very strongly. We would not comment further on this legal matter.”
With Reuters
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