Ben & Jerry’s founder slams parent company Magnum’s board changes

In an interview with CNBC, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen accused parent company Magnum Ice Cream Company of “destroying” the brand.

Magnum, the world’s largest independent ice cream business, is only a week old, but it’s already experienced years of internal drama.

Unilever-appointed Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jochanan Sengh said the changes to the board’s terms, including a nine-year term limit, an “involvement protocol” for board meetings and a requirement to adhere to Magnum’s Code of Business Integrity, will strengthen governance and transparency.

But Cohen called it “Orwellian.”

“They said they were strengthening the social mission when they were actually destroying the social mission. They said they were future-proofing the board when they were actually dismantling it,” Cohen told CNBC. “This is another desperate power grab.”

By Monday, three directors had been removed from Ben & Jerry’s’ independent board of directors, a new twist in the conflict between the brand named after its famous founder and its parent company over the brand’s social mission. This is a series of steps that newly listed Magnum inherited from a major consumer company. unilever Last week when it officially spun off as an independent company.

Ben & Jerry’s said in a press release that Ben & Jerry’s latest move to change its board governance is aimed at “maintaining and strengthening the brand’s historic social mission and protecting the brand’s essential integrity.”

The company said in a statement that Chairman Anuradha Mittal, one of the board members who was notified of disbarment, was told following an “internal investigation” that she “no longer meets the criteria to serve” as a board member, without providing further details.

“Initially, they tried to remove her as chair of the (independent) board by making unsubstantiated claims that she was ‘unfit for office.’ Unable to substantiate that, they now claim she served too long,” Cohen said. “It’s arbitrary and illegal.”

Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000, allowing the brand to maintain an independent board of directors and control over its social mission. But since 2021, the company’s board and founders Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have grown increasingly frustrated with efforts to “silence” its social mission.

Unilever, and now Magnum, will continue to have primary responsibility for all matters unrelated to the social mission or explicitly delegated to Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, including financial and operational matters.

CNBC has reached out to Magnum and Unilever for comment. Unilever said Ben & Jerry’s’ social mission has departed from what was agreed in 2000, posing significant reputational and business risks to the company.

Not for sale

Unilever and Magnum have repeatedly said Ben & Jerry’s is not for sale.

Ben & Jerry’s is one of the Ice Cream Group’s four global power brands, along with Heart Brand, Magnum and Cornetto. In 2024, Ben & Jerry’s contributed €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) to Group revenue, making it the third-largest revenue generator in the Group’s portfolio of more than 100 brands. Together, the four brands accounted for 82% of the group’s total revenue for the year.

Unilever first announced plans to spin off its ice cream division in March last year. “We needed to really focus on ice cream,” Magnum CEO Peter ter Kurbe told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street last week, highlighting how the company is growing both market share and sales volume.

Since Pure Ice Cream’s stock debuted on the Amsterdam and New York public markets on December 8, its share price has increased by around 10% and is now worth nearly €9 million. The company has set a revenue growth target of 3% to 5% starting in 2026.

But Cohen, who still works for the brand, sees no benefit in the brand he co-founded in 1978 remaining part of the ice cream group.

“They’re short-sighted, but I also think they just don’t understand,” he said of management. “They don’t understand that Ben & Jerry’s value is tied to its position at the forefront of a business that considers the interests of society as a whole, not just maximizing profits.”

“Investors would be much better off if Magnum finally sold this depreciating asset and instead took that money and bought some other half-baked brand, because that’s what they’re good at,” he added. “There’s a lot of money to be made for middle-of-the-road brands, but they should stick to their knitting and not try to make Ben & Jerry’s just another middle-of-the-road brand.”

In September, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield launched the campaign #FreeBenAndJerrys, calling on the parent company to allow it to “become an independent company with socially aligned investors, once again free to honor its social mission and live by its brand values ​​without compromise.”

The campaign aims to encourage a group of investors who believe in its social mission to buy back the brand.

“We have that group and they are ready,” Cohen said, adding that at the same time Unilever and now Magnum are refusing to disclose the financial information investors need to make a reasonable offer. Mr. Cohen did not name the investors.

Unilever said in its third-quarter earnings report that Ben & Jerry’s achieved mid-single-digit growth, driven by the continued success of dairy and non-dairy flavors and newly launched innovations such as Scoopapalooza, but did not provide other financial information by brand.

peace, love and ice cream

Ben & Jerry’s has a three-part mission: a social mission, a product mission, and a financial mission, which Cohen says are all equally important and interconnected. “This is something that people who grew up in the traditional system of Unilever cannot understand. It took us a long time to understand that… and they’re just trying to turn us into another frozen mush.”

“Unless Ben & Jerry’s is owned by a group of investors who actually support its social mission, rather than trying to destroy it, we can’t maintain the values ​​that built the brand into what it is today,” Cohen said of the brand, whose slogan is “peace, love and ice cream.”

Magnum Chief Executive Ter Kulve told the Financial Times earlier this month that Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield should “pass on to a new generation”.

But Cohen says it’s not about him as an individual, but about upholding the company’s values. “Values ​​never get old,” he says.

“I have no problem handing the company over to this group of investors who support the values…and if Magnum actually supports the social mission, I have no problem with them doing that.”