The co -founder of Ben & Jerry’s, Jerry Greenfield, announced his exit from the ice cream manufacturer on Tuesday night, claiming that the Matrix Unilever company had taken the independence of the company and “silenced” its social activism.
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The other co -founder of the company, Ben Cohen, shared Greenfield’s announcement in X, which said: “With a broken heart, I have decided that I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain employed by Ben & Jerry’s.”
Greenfield said the “independence of the ice cream manufacturer to pursue our values”, which was guaranteed “when Unilever bought the company … has gone.”
The statement then attacked the administration of President Donald Trump, saying that “the current administration of our country is attacking civil rights, the right to vote, the rights of immigrants, women and the LGBTQ community.”
Greenfield said that defending “justice, equity and our shared humanity has never been more important”, but claimed that “Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, marginalized by fear of bothering those in power.”
The co -founder of Ben & Jerry’s added: “If I cannot transmit those values within the company today, I will transmit them out, with all the love and conviction I can.”
In addition to sharing Greenfield’s statement, Cohen wrote: “His legacy deserves to be faithful to our values, not silenced” by the magnum Ice Cream Company, and followed him with the hashtag “#Freeebenandjerrys”.
Cita Crucial
Love, equity and justice. They are part of who Ben and I are, and have always been the base of Ben & Jerry’s. From the beginning, Ben and I believed that our values and the search for justice were more important than the company itself. If the company could not defend our beliefs, then it was not worth being a company at all, ”said Greenfield.
How has the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s responded?
In a statement shared with several media, Magnum Ice Cream Company (the Unilever ice cream unit that is being split into a separate company) said: “We do not agree with their perspective and we have sought to involve both co -founders in a constructive conversation about how to strengthen the powerful position based on values of Ben & Jerry’s in the world.”
What do we know about the confrontation of Ben & Jerry’s with Unilever?
Last year, Unilever announced plans to split its ice cream business, which includes brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Walls, Cornetto, Talenti and Magnum. However, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s had asked Unilever to release their ice cream brand amid the growing clashes for their social activism. In November, the Independent Board of Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever, claiming that the conglomerate had “silenced” its attempts to express support for the Palestinian refugees. The lawsuit also claimed that Unilever had “threatened to dismantle the independent Board and significantly sue the members of the Board” if the company promoted a message that requested the fire in Gaza. Earlier this month, Greenfield and Cohen issued a joint statement asking Ben & Jerry’s to be excluded from the Magnum Ice Cream Company split plan and, instead, it would be allowed to “operate once again as an independent property company.” The statement said: “We no longer believe that Ben & Jerry’s should be under the umbrella of a corporate entity that does not support its founding mission and that it is reducing the value of the company by undermining one of the fundamental reasons why customers love and support the brand … We believe that foundational values are central for what is Ben & Jerry’s and cannot simply be discarded by convenience or political pressure.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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