New York
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Hours after Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigned from the ice cream firm he based practically 5 a long time in the past, his former enterprise companion, Ben Cohen, revealed to NCS why Jerry felt he needed to depart.
“Jerry has a really big heart, and this conflict with Unilever was really kind of tearing him apart. So he felt like he had no choice to resign,” Cohen informed NCS’s Vanessa Yurkevich Wednesday. “Jerry’s kind of sad that it’s come to this, but part of him is feeling a sense of relief that he’s no longer in this intense conflict.”
Earlier Wednesday, Greenfield shared on social media that he was quitting the ice cream firm, accusing mum or dad firm Unilever of curbing Ben & Jerry’s skill to talk out on social and political causes, which is synonymous with the model’s id. The battle between the co-founders and Unilever has erupted into public view over the previous a number of years, leading to lawsuits and publicly posted letters.
British-based Unilever purchased Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for $326 million in 2000 however allowed the corporate to function independently and proceed its social mission with out interference from its new mum or dad firm. Cohen and Greenfield remained on the firm, which they based in 1978, however not in operational roles. Instead, they targeted on the corporate’s social missions.
But Cohen informed NCS that as administration at Unilever turned over, nobody who signed the cope with Ben & Jerry’s stays, and the conglomerate began to disrespect the phrases of its distinctive association with the ice cream maker. Tensions boiled over in recent times as Ben & Jerry’s opted to tug its operations from Israel, a call that was overruled by Unilever.
Since then, the corporate and its mum or dad have feuded, largely over politically targeted social media posts that Cohen mentioned Unilever opposed – and threatened to fireside folks over. Speaking out on political points, starting from President Donald Trump to Israel and the Gaza Strip, angered Unilever, which fired the corporate’s CEO earlier this 12 months.
Ultimately, Greenfield had sufficient. But Cohen mentioned he selected to remain to proceed to struggle for the corporate’s independence.
“I’m glad that we’re both standing up for the values of Ben and Jerry’s,” Cohen informed NCS. “I think that I can be most helpful from the inside and and Jerry’s going try to be helpful from the outside.”
Despite Greenfield’s exit, Cohen mentioned he’s dedicated to the independent board that helps management the model and can work to persuade its mum or dad firm to promote the model to a bunch of traders dedicated to Ben & Jerry’s social mission. Ben & Jerry’s is at present being spun off from Unilever into a brand new firm known as The Magnum Ice Cream Company, which expects to be publicly traded in November.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company in an announcement mentioned it disagrees with Greenfield’s and Cohen’s perspective, and mentioned it has tried to work with the model’s co-founders.
“We remain committed to Ben & Jerry’s unique three-part mission – product, economic and social – and remain focused on carrying forward the legacy of peace, love, and ice cream of this iconic, much-loved brand,” a Magnum spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
A significant component in Cohen’s remaining on the firm is to maintain intact Ben & Jerry’s three-part mission: a social mission to help justice and equality, together with a product and monetary mission. He says all three are core to the model – and claims its good for enterprise.
“When we came up with that three part mission, we deliberately wrote it horizontally to make the statement that they are all equally as important,” he mentioned. “As the company acts on its social values and as it produces great ice cream, it ends up making a good profit.”
Unilever, which doesn’t get away Ben & Jerry’s gross sales individually, mentioned in its 2024 annual earnings report that its ice cream division rose 3.7% from the 12 months earlier than.
Cohen doesn’t remorse sustaining its political and social stances, saying that Ben & Jerry’s merchandise have a small portion of the market so “we don’t have to appeal to everybody.”
“The reality is that businesses are incredibly political,” he mentioned. “The common enterprise, (are) utilizing their cash to affect elections, they usually’re utilizing their cash and their lobbyists to affect laws.
He added: “The only difference is that Ben and Jerry’s political aspects are overt, where we let people know what we think, whereas other businesses are covert.”
Even with Greenfield leaving the corporate, the “spirit of Jerry will always be at Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen mentioned. And their friendship, which reaches again to junior excessive after they have been the “two, slowest, fattest kids” of their class, will endure.
“I was a failure as a potter. Nobody would buy my pottery. Jerry was a med school reject, and we got together when we were 26 and said, ‘Let’s try starting a little business. Maybe that’ll work.’ We ended up starting this homemade ice cream shop in an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont, on an investment of $8,000 and we had no plans to be anything larger than that,” Cohen mentioned.
“It’s been an amazing ride. It’s been an amazing adventure, an amazing odyssey. There’s been good times, there’s been bad times, there’s been challenging times, and we’ve been through them all together, Jerry and myself, and it’s just built a stronger bond between us.”