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Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, whose identify helped form the favored ice cream model, has stop the corporate, his accomplice Ben Cohen stated on Wednesday, deepening the rift with mother or father Unilever.
In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry group that was shared by Cohen, on social media platform X, Greenfield stated that the Vermont-based firm has misplaced its independence since UK mother or father Unilever curtailed its social activism.
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Chubby Hubby maker stated it might cease gross sales within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
The model has since sued its mother or father over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza battle as “genocide,” a uncommon stance for a serious US firm.
Greenfield stated he might now not “in good conscience” proceed working for a corporation that had been “silenced” by Unilever, regardless of a merger settlement meant to safeguard the model’s social mission.
“That independence existed in no small half due to the distinctive merger settlement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever,” he wrote within the letter.
A Magnum Ice Cream firm spokesperson stated that it disagrees with Greenfield’s perspective and has sought to interact each co-founders in a constructive dialog on tips on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s highly effective values-based place on the planet.
Unilever didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
Final week, Ben Cohen stated the model had tried to engineer a sale to traders at a good market worth between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion amid tensions with Unilever however the proposal was rejected.
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