Hours after Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigned from the ice cream company he founded nearly five decades ago, his former business partner, Ben Cohen, revealed to CNN why Jerry felt he had to leave.
“Jerry has a really big heart, and this conflict with Unilever was really kind of tearing him apart. So he felt like he had no choice to resign,” Cohen told CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich Wednesday. “Jerry’s kind of sad that it’s come to this, but part of him is feeling a sense of relief that he’s no longer in this intense conflict.”
Earlier Wednesday, Greenfield shared on social media that he was quitting the ice cream company, accusing parent company Unilever of curtailing Ben & Jerry’s ability to speak out on social and political causes, which is synonymous with the brand’s identity. The conflict between the co-founders and Unilever has erupted into public view over the past several years, resulting in lawsuits and publicly posted letters.
British-based Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for $326 million in 2000 but allowed the company to operate independently and continue its social mission without interference from its new parent company. Cohen and Greenfield remained at the company, which they founded in 1978, but not in operational roles. Instead, they focused on the company’s social missions.
But Cohen told CNN that as management at Unilever turned over, no one who signed the deal with Ben & Jerry’s remains, and the conglomerate started to disrespect the terms of its unique arrangement with the ice cream maker. Tensions boiled over in recent years as Ben & Jerry’s opted to pull its operations from Israel, a decision that was overruled by Unilever.
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