The Ice Cream Giant's Co-creator Jerry Greenfield Resigns, Citing Parent Company Muzzled Social Mission
The Vermont-based ice cream maker's co-creator Jerry Greenfield has parted ways from the iconic company after almost five decades, as stated by a post from his business partner Ben Cohen.
Cohen’s post included what he described as a message from Greenfield, in which the departing co-founder called it one of the “hardest and difficult decisions” of his career.
Greenfield asserted that the company had been restrained by its corporate owner and that its independence to speak out on social causes was now “lost.”
“Unless the business was willing to advocate for the values we believed in, then it no longer deserved to exist as a company at all,” he said.
The decision came despite a merger agreement designed to protect the brand’s social mission, Greenfield added.
“This autonomy was preserved in no small part because of the special merger agreement” that he and Cohen had arranged with the conglomerate, Greenfield explained.
The ice cream maker and Unilever declined to comment to a media inquiry from Reuters.
Recently, Cohen revealed that during ongoing tensions with the parent company, the firm had tried to arrange a sale to investors at a reasonable price of $1.5 to $2.5 billion, but the proposal was rejected.
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have been at odds since at least recent years, when the company announced it would halt sales in the contested West Bank. The brand has also sued its corporate parent over accusations to restrain it and has called the conflict in Gaza “atrocities.”