by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Ben & Jerry's founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, today sent an open letter to the board of the Vermont ice cream maker's owner, Unilever, concerned over the spinoff of some of its food products, including Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc, as first reported by VermontBiz in 2024. The Amsterdam-based conglomerate is spinning off its ice cream division, headlined by Ben & Jerry's along with Cornetto and Wall's, as a standalone company called Magnum Ice Cream Company (MICC) in November. Magnum was created in a de-merger at the end of July. Cohen and Greenfield are urging Unilever to retain the spirit of Ben & Jerry's independent board and keep to the letter of the acquisition agreement made in 2000.
Ben & Jerry's and its parent, Unilever, have been at odds for several years. In 2021, Ben & Jerry's announced it would stop selling its products in Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, deeming it "inconsistent with Ben & Jerry's values." Unilever responded by selling the brand's business in Israel to a local licensee to ensure its products continued to be sold in the country.
Ben & Jerry's and founders Cohen and Greenfield also has been vociferous opponents of Israel's military actions in Gaza. Unilever fired Ben & Jerry's CEO Dave Stever in March 2025 in what Ben & Jerry's said was his social activism and not his performance. The new CEO is Jochanan Senf. The Ben & Jerry's board then took Unilever to court. The letter below from Cohen and Greenfield suggests that there could be further legal action if the Ben & Jerry's board is not allowed to act independently, as stipulated in the original agreement. They also have pushed for a total disintegration from Unilever under new ownership, which Unilever and Magnum have rejected.
Dear MICC Board Members,
When we founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978, we had a simple but radical idea: that a business could thrive by making great products while standing up for progressive values and social justice. Over the past five decades, Ben & Jerry’s has become successful precisely because people know it stands for something deeper than ice cream.
When Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, the acquisition agreement guaranteed the company’s autonomy, including via an independent board, with the freedom to pursue its social mission. That vital arrangement was the reason we agreed to the sale.
Today, as we watch Ben & Jerry’s formally become part of The Magnum Ice Cream Company as part of the Unilever de-merger, we feel compelled to speak out – as concerned individuals, rather than Ben & Jerry’s employees. We are deeply concerned that the commitments made to us, our employees, and our customers are being eroded. For several years now the voice of Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced by Unilever, particularly when the brand has tried to speak out about social justice and unjust wars. That is not the Ben & Jerry’s that we founded, or the one that we envisioned when we agreed to join Unilever 25 years ago.
We no longer believe that Ben & Jerry’s belongs under the umbrella of a corporate entity that fails to support its founding mission, and which is reducing the company’s value by undercutting one of the critical reasons why customers love and support the brand. Magnum may be a new company, but it retains the legacy, leadership and investment of Unilever’s ice cream business and the history of its actions against Ben & Jerry’s. The strength of Ben & Jerry’s lies in the authenticity of its values and its voice, whether in opposing crimes against humanity, speaking out against white supremacy, supporting marriage equality, demanding climate justice, or insisting that businesses have responsibilities beyond profitability.
For these reasons, we urge the board to allow Ben & Jerry’s to operate once again as an independently owned company, supported by socially-aligned investors and free to honor its mission without compromise. We believe that the founding values are central to what Ben & Jerry’s is, and cannot simply be discarded out of convenience or under political pressure. We say this out of love for a brand that we built and nurtured, out of loyalty to the millions of people who see Ben & Jerry’s as a standard-bearer for integrity in business, and because we firmly believe this will enhance the value of both the enterprises involved.
With sincerity and hope,
Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield
Co-Founders, Ben & Jerry’s