The co-founders of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand are demanding the brand is given its independence back amid a long-running row with its current UK owner.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have written an open letter demanding that it be “released” from its parent firm.
Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 but is set to spin off all its ice cream brands under The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) name in a deal set to be fully completed before the end of the year.
The consumer goods firm has never enjoyed an easy relationship with Ben & Jerry’s – a brand known for its activism on many political and social issues.
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As part of the original merger deal, an independent board was set up to protect the ice cream brand’s mission.
But a series of disputes have followed.
The most high-profile spat came in 2021 when the US brand took the decision not to sell ice cream in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories on the grounds that sales would be “inconsistent” with its values.
Unilever responded by selling the business to its licensee in Israel.
The independent board is currently locked in a legal dispute with Unilever, claiming in March that its then-chief executive David Stever was improperly sacked.
For its part, Unilever has always argued that it “reserved primary responsibility for financial and operational decisions” as owners of Ben & Jerry’s.
In another example of the frostiness between them, an ice cream flavour launched in support of Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris went down badly in London.
Ben & Jerry’s claimed Unilever had demanded it stop public criticism of Donald Trump.
Ben Cohen himself was arrested earlier this year over a protest in support of Gaza during a US Senate hearing.
Mr Cohen was one…
