Phish food for thought: Ben & Jerry’s political turmoil

Investors are cooling on Ben & Jerry’s as the founders continue to be caught up in a spat with the ice cream brand’s owners.

The Magnum Ice Cream Company, which owns Ben & Jerry’s as well as Cornetto and Wall’s, completed a spin-off from parent firm Unilever this week and began trading on the European stock market as a standalone business, but its initial valuation was “significantly lower” than expected, said The Times.

Unilever, and now Magnum, have been embroiled in a “war of words” with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s. The pair have accused both companies of silencing the brand’s “social mission”, after they were told by Magnum boss Peter ter Kulve that they should “hand over to a new generation”.

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‘Tug of war’ over activism

The “long-running legal spat” is about the “powers to define” Ben & Jerry’s direction, said Madeleine Speed in the Financial Times. Since the company was acquired by Unilever in 2000 for $326 million (£246 million), Cohen and Greenfield have become “increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with the direction of the brand”.

It has been an ever-present “tug of war”, said Sky News. Currently, Magnum is trying to remove the chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board, stating that "internal investigations” reveal she “no longer meets the criteria”.

There were also fears that Ben & Jerry’s pro-Gaza activism would derail the spin-off from Unilever, said The Telegraph. Back in 2021, “tensions flared” as the ice cream brand announced it would halt sales in “occupied Palestinian territory”, followed by legal action from Ben & Jerry’s when Unilever “sold distribution rights in Israel and the West Bank to a local licensee”. Last November, Ben & Jerry’s claimed that Unilever had “tried to silence” its social mission by “blocking statements on the conflict in the Middle East”. In a prospectus for investors seen by The Telegraph, Unilever admitted that the political views of Ben & Jerry’s founders could “adversely impact the Group’s reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations”.

‘Corporate activism is melting’

Greenfield quit Ben & Jerry’s in September, after more than 50 years. His resignation was seen by many as the latest “casualty” in a “broader reckoning” going on in Donald Trump’s second term, said Monocle. Corporate activism, particularly on the left, is “melting”.

The administration’s promotion of “anti-diversity, America-first mindset” is at odds with the “feel-good, save-the-world, ‘kumbaya’ philosophy” that has fuelled Ben & Jerry’s marketing. When Unilever bought the brand, the co-founders said the company “not only understood their social-mindedness but guaranteed that it could continue without interference”. In a public letter explaining his resignation from Ben & Jerry’s in September, Greenfield said he could not “in good conscience” work for a company that had been “silenced” by Unilever.

Cohen, who is still involved with the company, is “in the middle of a bitter feud” with Unilever, said The Times’ chief business correspondent William Turvill. Cohen claims the founders have been “muzzled” by attempts to “disempower” the board by discussing removing Anuradha Mittal as chair of the independent board.

However, “Unilever believes it has acted reasonably”. The company said they would allow calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in late 2023, only if Ben & Jerry’s “also condemned Hamas terrorism and called for the release of hostages taken in October of that year”. And Unilever is hardly “the only big company that shies away from antagonising the White House”.

But Cohen “shows no sign of shrinking away” either, said Turvill. He will “continue to speak out” and at upcoming conferences, will “take Unilever and Magnum to task on European soil”.