‘Orwellian’: Ben & Jerry’s founder tells CNBC he’s alarmed by Magnum’s board overhaul

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen has slammed parent Magnum Ice Cream Company, saying it is "destroying" the brand, in an interview with CNBC.

The world's largest standalone ice cream business, Magnum, is only a week old but has already had a lifetime of corporate drama.

Ben & Jerry's CEO Jochanan Senf, appointed by Unilever, has said changes to the terms of the board, including a nine-year term limit, setting a board cadence with "protocols on engagement" and an obligation to comply with Magnum's code of business integrity, would strengthen governance and transparency. 

Cohen, however, said statements made by Magnum about the governance changes were "Orwellian."

"They said that they're enhancing the social mission when they're actually destroying it. They said that they're future-proofing the Board of Directors when they're actually dismantling it," Cohen told CNBC. "It's another desperate power grab."

By Monday, three directors had been ousted from the independent board of Ben & Jerry's, in a new twist to the conflict between the brand named after its well-known founders and its parent company over the brand's social mission. It's a row that newly listed Magnum inherited from consumer giant Unilever when it officially spun off into an independent company last week.

The changes to Ben & Jerry's corporate governance "aim to preserve and enhance the brand's historical social mission and safeguard its essential integrity," a spokesperson told CNBC in an emailed statement. "Since 2000, the Board has worked with the company to ensure Ben & Jerry's is a vital voice for social change and to amplify movements that shape a more just and equitable world," they added.

Magnum said Chair Anuradha Mittal — one of the board members notified of their ineligibility — no longer meets the criteria to serve as a member of the board following "internal investigations," the company said, declining to give further details.

"Initially, they were trying to get rid of the chairman of the [independent] board, by making these unfounded allegations that she's 'not fit to serve'. They weren't able to substantiate that, so now they're saying, well, she served for too long," Cohen said. "It's arbitrary, and it's illegal."

Ben & Jerry's was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal that allowed the brand to maintain an independent board as well as the right to make decisions on its social mission. Since 2021, however, growing discontent by the board as well as founders Cohen and Jerry Greenfield over what they call attempts to "silence" the social mission. CNBC has reached out to Unilever for comment.

Unilever, and now Magnum, retains primary responsibility for all matters not relating to the social mission or matters expressly delegated to the Ben & Jerry's board, including financial and operational aspects.

Magnum has said the governance structure of Ben & Jerry's poses material reputational and business risks.

Not for sale

Unilever and Magnum have repeatedly said that Ben & Jerry's isn't for sale. 

"Ben & Jerry's is a proud, thriving and integral part of The Magnum Ice Cream Company, and it is not for sale," the Magnum spokesperson said. "Since the acquisition in 2000, Unilever and now TMICC has taken Ben & Jerry's from 4 to 46 countries, sales have increased six-fold, and we have invested nearly half a billion euros in the social mission."

Ben & Jerry's is one of the ice cream group's four global power brands, alongside the Heartbrand, Magnum and Cornetto. In 2024, Ben & Jerry's brought in 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to group revenue, making it the third largest revenue generator among the group's portfolio of more than 100 brands. The four brands combined accounted for 82% of the group's total full-year revenue.

Unilever first announced plans to spin off its ice cream unit in March last year. "We needed real focus on ice cream," Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve told CNBC's Squawk on the Street last week, highlighting how the company is managing to grow both market share and volumes.

Since the pure ice cream stock debuted on public markets in Amsterdam and New York on Dec. 8, the stock has risen about 10% and is now valued at nearly 9 million euros. The company has set a revenue growth target of between 3% and 5% from 2026.

But Cohen, who still works at the brand, doesn't see any benefit of the brand he co-founded in 1978 staying part of the ice cream group.

"They're being short-sighted, but I also think that they just don't understand," he said of management. "They don't understand that the value of Ben & Jerry's is tied up in the position that it has established as being in the forefront of businesses that have a concern for the overall benefit of the society, as opposed to just maximizing profits."

"Investors would be a lot better off if Magnum finally sold this asset, which they are in the process of devaluing, and instead took the money and bought some other middle-of-the-road brands, because that's what they're good at," he added. "There's a lot of money to be made in middle of the road stuff, but they ought to stick to their knitting and not try to not try to force Ben & Jerry's to become just another one of their middle of the road brands."

In September, Cohen and Greenfield launched the campaign #FreeBenAndJerrys, calling for their parent company to allow it to become "an independently owned company with socially-aligned investors and once again free to honor its social mission and live by its brand values, without compromise."

The campaign is aimed at encouraging a group of investors who believe in the social mission to buy the brand back.

"We have that group, they're ready," Cohen said, while adding that Unilever and now Magnum refuse to divulge the necessary financial information investors need to make a rational offer. Cohen declined to name the investors. 

Unilever said in its third-quarter earnings report that Ben & Jerry's grew mid-single digits, supported by the ongoing success of newly launched innovations such as new dairy, non-dairy flavours and Scoopapalooza, but didn't specify other financial information on a brand-by-brand basis. 

Magnum declined to provide further financial information on Ben & Jerry's.

Peace, love and ice cream

Ben & Jerry's has a three-part mission: a social mission, a product mission, and a financial mission, which Cohen says are all equally significant and interrelated. "It's something that people who are brought up in the Unilever traditional system can't understand. It took us a long time to figure it out… and they're just trying to make us into another piece of frozen mush."

The Magnum spokesperson said the company "remains unequivocally committed to Ben & Jerry's three-part mission," adding that it continues to advocate for a range of causes.

"There's no way that Ben & Jerry's can maintain the values that built it into the brand that it is today without becoming owned by a group of investors that actually support the social mission instead of trying to destroy it," said Cohen about the brand that has "peace, love and ice cream" as its slogan. 

Magnum CEO ter Kulve told the Financial Times earlier this month that Cohen and Greenfield ought to "hand over to a new generation."

But Cohen says it's not about him as an individual, but about maintaining the values of the company. "Values don't get old," he said.

"I have no problem handing over the company to this group of investors that support the values… and if Magnum actually supported the social mission, I'd have no problem with them doing it."