Ben & Jerry’s's co-founder Jerry Greenfield has parted ways from the iconic brand after nearly 50 years, according to a post from his business partner Ben Cohen.
Cohen’s post included what he described as a message from Greenfield, in which the departing executive labeled it one of the “toughest and most painful decisions” of his life.
Greenfield asserted that the organization had been silenced by its corporate owner and that its autonomy to address global issues was now “lost.”
“Unless the business was willing to advocate for the values we cared about, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all,” he said.
This move came despite a merger agreement designed to protect the company’s ethical commitments, Greenfield noted.
“This autonomy was preserved largely because of the special acquisition terms” which both founders had arranged with the conglomerate, Greenfield wrote.
The ice cream maker and Unilever declined to comment to a request for comment from the news agency.
Last week, Cohen said that amid disagreements with the parent company, the firm had tried to engineer a transfer to investors at a reasonable price of $1.5bn–$2.5bn, but the offer was turned down.
The multinational and the ice cream brand have been in conflict since at least recent years, when the ice-cream maker said it would halt sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The brand has also sued its owner over alleged attempts to restrain it and has referred to the conflict in Gaza “genocide.”
