The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has launched a bid to wrestle the brand back from Unilever after an uneasy 25-year corporate marriage.
Ben Cohen, 74, founded the eponymous company with his childhood friend Jerry Greenfield, 74, in a petrol station in Vermont in 1978, and sold it to the FTSE 100 consumer goods giant in 2000.
He is now seeking investors to join his attempt to regain ownership as the Anglo-Dutch parent group prepares to spin off its ice cream assets into a separate company with a primary listing in Amsterdam.
Cohen’s bid comes after years of acrimony between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever over the ice cream brand’s stance on social issues.
As part of Unilever’s takeover deal, Ben & Jerry’s retained the power to have an independent board that would make decisions related to the brand’s social mission and marketing. Unilever is not able to fire the independent board, even in the event of a sale or spin-off.
Ben & Jerry’s said in 2021 that it would no longer sell its products in occupied Palestinian territories, arguing that it was “inconsistent with our values”. When Unilever subsequently struck a deal to sell the ice cream unit’s operation in Israel, Cohen and Greenfield claimed it had breached the terms of its takeover. Unilever disputed the allegations and agreed a legal settlement with Ben & Jerry’s over the deal in 2022.
Last year the companies clashed again, when Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever to stop alleged efforts to dismantle its board and end its progressive social activism, which has included protesting against the war in Gaza, supporting a movement to defund police, and attempting to criticise US President Donald Trump.
In response, Unilever said it supported Ben & Jerry’s and its social advocacy work, but the social mission had evolved into advocacy for “one-sided, highly controversial and polarising topics that put Unilever, B&J’s and their employees at risk”.
The ice cream brand alleged in a court filing last month that Unilever had breached the terms of its takeover deal by removing David Stever, its chief executive, without consulting the independent board. Unilever said it had tried to engage with the board. Cohen remains an employee of the company but is no longer a member of the board. Along with Greenfield, he wrote a letter to Ben & Jerry’s employees supporting Stever.
“In the year 2000, Unilever loved us for who we were,” Cohen told The Wall Street Journal. “Now we’ve gone separate ways in our relationship. We just need them to set us free.”
Unilever plans to merge Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Magnum and other ice cream brands later this year under the Magnum brand name. It is simplifying a product portfolio whose dozens of other brands include Dove, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Surf and Vaseline.
A Unilever spokesman said: “Ben & Jerry’s, as a key part of the demerging ice cream business, is not for sale.”
