‘Sorry, Ben, it’s not for sale’: Ben & Jerry’s owner rules out selling ice cream
The owner of Ben & Jerry’s has said it will not sell the ice cream brand back to its founder.
Magnum, whose stable of brands also includes Cornetto and Wall’s, was spun off from consumer giant Unilever this week with a primary listing on the Euronext stock market in Amsterdam, and secondary listings in New York and London.
But Ben Cohen, who co-founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978 alongside Jerry Greenfield, has criticised its owners for suppressing the brand’s attempts to make political statements.
‘Ben wants to have it back but I am sorry Ben, it is not for sale,’ Magnum chief executive, Peter Ter Kulve told the BBC on Friday.
He said the brand had an ‘outstanding’ management team and that ‘Ben is not running the business.’
Ter Kulve added: ‘They [the management team] are perfectly able to manage the inherent tension of the three part mission, the social campaigning, the economic needs of the business, the product.’
It is the latest update in a bitter row between the owners of Ben & Jerry’s and its founders
The brand was bought for £251million in 2000, with the agreement that it would be managed by an independent board.
Cohen has accused Unilever and Magnum of trying to block the ice cream company from expressing its support for Gaza and criticism of Israel amid the war in the Middle East.
When asked about Cohen’s claims that Ben & Jerry’s owners had blocked an ice cream flavour that expressed ‘solidarity with Palestine’, Ter Kulve said this was ‘spin’ in an attempt to buy back the brand.
And Ben & Jerry’s is now ‘an integral part of my business, it is fully integrated, supply chain, IT systems, sales,’ Ter Kulve added.
‘You might have a little bit of critical mass in the US but in the rest of the world, it is one. There are no two businesses, it is one business with a beautiful brand with a fantastic social mission. We are very proud to have it.’
‘We are all in on social activism, that is not a problem,’ he insisted.
Ben & Jerry’s is now owned by Magnum Ice Cream Company after Unilever spun off its ice cream brands
It is the latest saga in a bitter row between the two parties and has overshadowed Magnum’s £7bn listing this week.
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, said: ‘I am standing with socially aligned investors who want to buy Ben & Jerry’s back and who understand that what makes the brand truly valuable is our social mission.
‘When Ben & Jerry’s was bought by Unilever in 2000, we had bids from multiple companies who understood how valuable an acquisition the brand was. This value stems directly from the success of the social mission, which is not currently being upheld by Magnum.’
Cohen said on Monday: ‘Ben & Jerry’s social mission has always been inseparable from the brand itself, no matter how much Unilever [and] Magnum have tried to distance the two.’
In October, Ben & Jerry’s other co-founder Jerry Greenfield after almost half a century at the firm, claiming the brand had been ‘silenced’ by Unilever.
Ter Kulve was also asked about the impact of weight loss drugs including Ozempic on the business.
‘When people are on drugs, they consume a little bit less,’ he said, but there was a relatively ‘low’ impact on market share because ice-cream is a ‘special occasion treat’.
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