The Magnum Ice Cream Company said the chair of Ben & Jerry’s board no longer “meets the criteria” to serve following internal investigations, the latest salvo between the frozen treats giant and the outspoken brand.
Magnum, which also owns Talenti and Klondike, said in an SEC filing that it informed the Ben & Jerry’s board about the results of its investigation and “will consider its options” depending on the response it receives from the Cherry Garcia maker.
The ice cream company did not provide details of the investigation or directly name the chair. Ben & Jerry’s website showed Anuradha Mittal, who founded the human rights think tank Oakland Institute, as overseeing the board.
In an email, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said the move “is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history and strip the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of the legal authority it was guaranteed” when Unilever purchased the brand in 2000.
Ben & Jerry’s said the “unique merger agreement” reached a quarter of a century ago allowed the ice cream to have an independent board of directors to preserve and grow its social mission, brand integrity and product quality.
“Now Unilever / Magnum are eroding those protections from within, and targeting Anuradha Mittal, a person of enormous courage and principle, simply for standing up for what’s right,” he said. “This is not governance. It’s a power grab to stifle the social mission, which will in turn, destroy the long term value of the brand.”
Consumer goods giant Unilever is in the process of spinning out its ice cream business into a separate company called Magnum. The separation, now planned for Dec. 8, was originally scheduled for this month but was delayed due to the U.S. government shutdown.
Magnum, which generated $9.3 billion in revenue last year, will immediately become the world’s biggest company focused only on ice cream once it separates from Unilever. A major portion of Magnum’s sales will be generated in the U.S., its biggest market.
The skirmish is the latest in an ongoing battle between Magnum/Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s, which has publicly said the ice cream giant has silenced its ability to speak out on social issues.
The brand previously said Unilever demanded it stop publicly criticizing President Donald Trump and tried to block it from making public statements advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza. The companies also disagreed earlier this year on whether Unilever fired Ben & Jerry’s CEO over his support for the brand’s social mission.
In September, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield said he was resigning from the ice cream brand after nearly five decades amid the deepening rift with Unilever. Greenfield said Unilever has abandoned its promise to give Ben & Jerry’s independence to speak out on progressive social issues, instead choosing to keep the brand “silenced [and] sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”
Christopher Doering
2025-11-05 16:00:00