Ben, Jerry told to “hand over” Ben & Jerry’s by corporate big wigs

Ben & Jerry’s boss thinks the company’s founders and board members ought to hand over the company to the next generation, amid a long-simmering fight for control of the ice cream brand.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are both in their seventies and have grown increasingly upset with their brand’s parent company, Unilever, claiming that executives there have repeatedly tried to stifle the brand’s activism. The frustration culminated in Greenfield deciding to quit Unilever in protest in September. 

And it has been fired up again: Peter ter Kulve, chief executive of Unilever’s ice-cream offshoot Magnum Ice Cream Company, recently told the Financial Times that it’s time for the pair to move on.

The ice cream brand’s co-founders’ “commitment to the brand, to the causes, has been immense,” ter Kulve told FT, “but at a certain moment you need to hand it over…we need to move on.” The comments, per the FT, also pertained to trustees of Ben & Jerry’s charitable arm, Jeff Furman and Liz Bankowski. 

“Unlike Magnum,” Cohen said in response, “I don’t think there is an age limit on campaigning for social justice and peace. This is another attempt to silence the social mission that we are all too familiar with, as Unilever attempts to wash their hands of Ben & Jerry’s through this IPO.” 

“But,” he continued, “Ben & Jerry’s social mission has always been inseparable from the brand itself, and it is legally protected.”

The back and forth comes as Magnum is demerging from its parent company, Unilever. Shares of the new ice cream offshoot start trading in Amsterdam on Monday. The Ben & Jerry’s brand, which the pair launched nearly five decades ago, sold to Unilever for $326 million in 2000. Unilever announced the spin-off last year “as part of a plan to slim down the sprawling multinational through lay-offs and divestments,” according to FT. 

According to Reuters, a recent audit of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation by Magnum “found that it had deficiencies in financial controls and governance” and “deficiencies in other compliance policies such as conflicts of interest.” Ter Kulve told FT that he “can’t continue to fund” the foundation “unless we basically have complied with the conclusions of the audit, and we’re working on that.”

Counsel for the Ben & Jerry’s board dismissed what they called Unilever’s “phantom allegations,” alleging the claims are part of a campaign against Anuradha Mittal, who chairs the independent board, because she is trying to “protect the independence of Ben & Jerry’s under the merger agreement.” 

With the demerger, Magnum is set to inherit a contentious legal battle between the Ben & Jerry’s board and Unilever. The board has accused Unilever of blocking its call for a ceasefire in Gaza, preventing it from supporting Palestinian refugees, and otherwise attempting to thwart the charitable arm of the company. In May, Cohen was arrested after disrupting a Senate hearing to protest the US government’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. 

In the note announcing his decision to quit, Greenfield said that the independence they fought for some 25 years ago was effectively “gone.” “Standing up for the values of justice, equity, and our shared humanity has never been more important,” he wrote. 

“And yet,” he continued, “Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”