The bitter feud between Ben & Jerry’s and parent company Unilever has escalated.
They have been locked in a battle over the ice cream maker’s ‘woke’ causes, which Unilever is trying to reign in.
At the same time, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream have asked Unilever to sell the brand back to them.
So far, Unilever has said no. And now the parent company is threatening to pull funding for the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which donates to charities and social justice organizations.
Unilever has demanded an immediate audit of the foundation’s donations or it will pull its roughly $5 million contribution, Reuters reported.
The foundation has previously supported the Human Rights Coalition, Homes for All St Louis and Black Workers Matter.
Ben Cohen, who started the much-loved brand with Jerry Greenfield, has been rallying like-minded investors to join him in buying back the company, which has been known for its activism since its founding in Vermont in 1978.
It comes weeks after CEO David Stever was fired by Unilever sparking a lawsuit.
The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation could lose $5 million in funding from Unilever
When Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s for $326 million in 2000, it agreed to let an independent board oversee the brand’s social justice mission.
However, that mission has repeatedly clashed with Unilever’s corporate priorities.
Tensions escalated in 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s halted sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, sparking a public battle between the brand and its parent company.
Now, as Unilever considers spinning off its ice cream division — which includes brands like Magnum — Cohen wants Ben & Jerry’s to go its own way.
‘In the year 2000, Unilever loved us for who we were,’ Cohen previously told the Wall Street Journal.
‘Now we’ve gone separate ways in our relationship. We just need them to set us free.’
Unilever has held firm that Ben & Jerry’s is an important part of its ice-cream business and is not for sale.
Although Cohen and Greenfield are no longer on the company’s board they wrote a letter in support of Stever.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have begun initial discussions to buy Ben and Jerry’s back from Unilever
Ben & Jerry’s claims its CEO was fired by its parent company because of his political activism
Ben & Jerry’s remaining bosses also filed a lawsuit in response accusing the parent company of firing Stever for his political activism.
They also say Unilever violated an agreement struck when the conglomerate bought Ben & Jerry’s that allowed it to continue its ‘social mission’ and advocate for causes.
‘We spent a tremendous amount of time and energy working on that document and negotiating it,’ Cohen, 74, told the Journal.
‘If not for that agreement, Ben & Jerry’s would have died by now, and it would be just another ice cream brand.’
Ben & Jerry’s claims Unilever went against the agreement when it stopped the brand speaking out against Donald Trump after he won his second presidential election in November 2024.
Ben & Jerry’s had planned to take the Trump administration to task on minimum wage, universal health care, abortion, and climate change, per the suit.
‘Despite four decades of progressive social activism—and years of challenging the Trump administration’s policies, criticizing Trump was now too taboo for the brand synonymous with ‘Peace, Love, and Ice Cream,” Ben & Jerry’s said in the lawsuit.
Unilever in turn says the brand has pivoted to supporting ‘one-sided, highly controversial, and polarizing topics’ that put its other business interests at risk.
However, Cohen – who remains an employee of Ben & Jerry’s – is not ready to throw in the towel.
‘Ben & Jerry’s is a company with a soul,’ he told the Journal.
‘Business is the most powerful force in our society, and for that, it has responsibility to the society.’
