Co-founder Ben Cohen warned the BBC that if Ben & Jerry’s stays with parent firm Magnum, the brand will be ruined. His comments are the most recent in a protracted dispute between the ice cream company and its parent corporation regarding the board’s continued independence and the brand’s capacity to convey its social involvement.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), which separated from its parent company Unilever, began trading on the European stock market on Monday. Ben & Jerry’s “powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world” was the company’s goal, according to a Magnum representative.
When Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000, the company retained an independent board and the authority to determine its social mission. Conflicts between the Vermont-based company and Unilever have intensified since the sale, and Magnum has now taken over the dispute.
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s declined to sell its products in Israeli-occupied territory, prompting Unilever to sell its Israeli business to a local licensee. In October, Ben Cohen claimed that the company was unable to develop an ice cream that showed “solidarity with Palestine.
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