Ben & Jerry’s's Co-creator Jerry Greenfield Steps Down, Claiming Parent Company Muzzled Social Mission
Ben & Jerry’s's co-creator Jerry Greenfield has parted ways from the iconic brand after nearly 50 years, as stated by a message from his fellow founder Ben Cohen.
The announcement included what he called a message from Greenfield, in which the exiting co-founder called it one of the “toughest and difficult decisions” of his career.
Greenfield stated that the organization had been silenced by Unilever and that its independence to speak out on global issues was now “gone.”
“If the company couldn’t stand up for the values we believed in, then it no longer deserved to exist as a company at all,” he wrote.
The decision came despite a acquisition deal meant to protect the company’s ethical commitments, Greenfield noted.
“That independence existed largely because of the special acquisition terms” that he and Cohen had negotiated with the conglomerate, Greenfield explained.
The ice cream maker and its parent firm declined to comment to a request for comment from the news agency.
Last week, Cohen said that amid ongoing tensions with the parent company, the brand had tried to engineer a sale to buyers at a reasonable price of $1.5bn–$2.5bn, but the offer was turned down.
Unilever and the ice cream brand have been in conflict since at least recent years, when the company said it would stop selling in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The brand has also taken legal action against its owner over alleged attempts to silence it and has called the conflict in Gaza “genocide.”
