I have a question for Ben (Cohen) and Jerry (Greenfield), the men who came up with “ice-cream with a conscience”: cool idea, guys – so why did you ever sell up in the first place? If campaigning for social justice was a main aim of your business, why offload it?
The founders of Ben & Jerry’s have written a furious open letter to investors and the board of the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which is in the process of being demerged from Unilever, the London-listed consumer products giant that bought the brand 25 years ago. The newly independent company will have its shares listed in Amsterdam as the parent reshapes its portfolio. That’s where Ben & Jerry’s – which was founded by a couple of hippies in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, and sold in 2000 for more than $300m (£221m) – will reside in future.
