Ben & Jerry\u2019s co-founder Jerry Greenfield is resigning from the ice cream company he founded in 1978, saying the brand\u2019s freedom to speak out on social issues has been stifled by parent company Unilever. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry\u2019s,\u201d Greenfield said in a letter posted on the website for the Free Ben & Jerry\u2019s campaign. \u201cBen & Jerry\u2019s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move comes at an awkward time for Unilever, the consumer-goods giant, which has been courting investors as it prepares to list its ice cream unit as a standalone firm in mid-November. The Financial Times first reported Greenfield\u2019s letter and plans. <\/p>\n
Ben & Jerry\u2019s, famous for popular flavors including Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia, has long been outspoken on social and political issues. When Unilever bought the brand in 2000, Ben & Jerry\u2019s negotiated a detailed merger agreement to protect its right to speak out, which included the establishment of an independent board to oversee its social mission. <\/p>\n
In recent years, the relationship between Unilever and Ben & Jerry\u2019s independent board has soured and the board is currently taking Unilever to court in the U.S. over what it says are attempts to clamp down on its freedom.<\/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 Greenfield said in the letter. <\/p>\n
Greenfield is stepping away from the position of brand ambassador, a salaried role he has held since the acquisition. He isn\u2019t involved in the legal dispute, Unilever said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe disagree with his [Jerry\u2019s] perspective and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry\u2019s powerful values-based position in the world,\u201d a spokesperson for Magnum said by email. <\/p>\n
Greenfield and co-founder Ben Cohen have said they want to buy the brand back. Cohen told Bloomberg this month there\u2019s a group of investors that is \u201ccapable and ready\u201d to make an offer for Ben & Jerry\u2019s. \u201cThe only problem is that Unilever and Magnum have stated that they\u2019re not open to that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cohen protested outside the London venue where the new unit, now called the Magnum Ice Cream Co., held its first capital markets day last week. <\/p>\n
Magnum Chief Executive Peter ter Kulve has said the Ben & Jerry\u2019s brand is not for sale, and is fully integrated into the new company. <\/p>\n
Hughes-Morgan writes for Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben & Jerry\u2019s co-founder Jerry Greenfield is resigning from the ice cream company he founded in 1978, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21861,1877,3696,8969,4817,21862,42,21866,21864,9445,21860,21863,21865,43,5572,40,38,41,39,20840,1661],"class_list":["post-24177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ben","tag-bloomberg","tag-brand","tag-cohen","tag-email","tag-greenfield","tag-headlines","tag-ice-cream-company","tag-independent-board","tag-investor","tag-jerry","tag-letter","tag-magnum","tag-news","tag-sale","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-unilever","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}