Ben & Jerry\u2019s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has quit the ice cream brand he launched almost half a century ago, arguing the Vermont-based company has lost its independence since UK parent Unilever put a stop to its social activism.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the consumer group shared with the Financial Times, Greenfield said he could no longer \u201cin good conscience\u201d remain an employee of a business that had been \u201csilenced\u201d by Unilever despite a merger agreement that protected the brand\u2019s social mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement\u201d that he and fellow co-founder Ben Cohen had negotiated with Unilever, Mr Greenfield wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Greenfield\u2019s resignation is the latest chapter in a dispute that has simmered since Unilever in 2021 backtracked on an agreement allowing Ben & Jerry\u2019s to stop selling ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories, following an outcry in Israel.<\/p>\n
Mr Greenfield and Mr Cohen set up Ben & Jerry\u2019s, known for flavours such as Phish Food and Chunky Monkey, in 1978 in Vermont. After selling to Unilever in 2000, the pair remained employees of the brand to help maintain its founding social mission, but had no control over operations.<\/p>\n
Mr Greenfield\u2019s letter comes as Unilever prepares to spin out its ice cream division, whose brands also include Wall\u2019s and Magnum, in mid-November. The new business, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, will list in Amsterdam with secondary listings in London and New York. <\/p>\n
In advance of TMICC\u2019s first capital markets day last week, Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield published an open letter to the board and potential investors, calling for the brand to be \u201creleased\u201d, and arguing that by eroding the social mission, Unilever had devalued Ben & Jerry\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield have been looking for investors to help them buy the brand back, but Unilever has dismissed the idea on a number of occasions, insisting it is not for sale. Mr Cohen told the FT last week that they had interest from investors representing enough money to put forward an offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that Unilever and Magnum don\u2019t want to sell, so they are not allowing any of these potential investors to see the financials,\u201d he said. Mr Cohen would not say who the investors were but said they shared the brand\u2019s values.<\/p>\n
Ben & Jerry\u2019s independent board, established as part of the merger agreement to protect the brand\u2019s values, is suing Unilever for violating the merger agreement, arguing that the parent company has prevented the brand from speaking out on social and political issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible waste of energy and time on the part of both parties,\u201d Mr Cohen said. \u201cThey say they believe in the social mission of Ben & Jerry\u2019s, but they are thwarting it. If you love it, let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n
A TMICC spokesperson said it would be \u201cforever grateful\u201d to Mr Greenfield for his role in co-founding the company, but that it \u201cdisagreed with his perspective\u201d and had sought to engage both co-founders in a \u201cconstructive conversation\u201d on how to strengthen the brand.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the FT after the capital markets day, TMICC chief executive Peter ter Kulve said the dispute between the two sides was a \u201csimple\u201d governance issue. <\/p>\n
The company had aligned with Ben & Jerry\u2019s board \u201cfor a very long time\u201d, Mr ter Kulve said, until it \u201cstarted reinterpreting our original purchase agreement\u201d. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben & Jerry\u2019s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has quit the ice cream brand he launched almost half a century…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[48233,79,18,19,17,71,72,6636],"class_list":{"0":"post-69433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ben-jerrys","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-palestine","15":"tag-unilever"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}