Ben & Jerry’s has said its chief executive, David Stever, was being removed by its parent company, Unilever, in a growing dispute over the ice cream company’s political activism.
The allegation was part of a legal case filed in a US court by Ben & Jerry’s that says Unilever violated a merger agreement by trying to silence its “social mission”.
It comes a month after the ice cream company accused Unilever of demanding that it stops publicly criticising US President Donald Trump.
The ice cream maker was bought by Unilever in 2000 through a merger agreement that created an independent board tasked with protecting the ice cream brand’s values and mission.
But Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have been at loggerheads for a while. Their relationship soured in 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s announced it was halting sales in the West Bank. The dispute escalated over the last year as Ben & Jerry’s advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza.
i wouldn’t downplay the quality of their product, best among the dozen brands available in my city
Give it 6-12 months after they remove the leadership that cares. Gotta get rid of the people maintaining the quality so you can drop that as quickly as possible and maximize profits.
It’s like society just doesn’t fucking understand capitalism… like, at all?
You’re literally looking at it in real time lmao
Gotta get rid of the people that care about the product so you can put people in place that only care about shareholder value.
The political activism might have had part in it. Not treating people and animals like garbage and squeezing every drip of profits out of the ingredients tends to improve the quality.
Yeah it’s basically the only ice cream I’ve purchased in the last decade. Had no idea about the political activism until like a year ago. I’d buy even more but I’d break the bathroom scale.