Unilever Dropping Anti-Israel Company Ben & Jerry’s as It Exits the Ice Cream Business
The company caused many problems for Unilever over its hatred of Israel, embracing of antisemites, participation in the BDS movement, and anti-America tweets.
Unilever, which owns over 400 companies, has finally decided to kick Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s to the curb.
Unilever claims it wants “to accelerate its Growth Action Plan (GAP) through the separation of Ice Cream and the launch of a major productivity programme.” From the press release:
The Board believes that Unilever should be increasingly focused on a portfolio of unmissably superior brands with strong positions in highly attractive categories that have complementary operating models. This is where the company can most effectively apply its innovation, marketing and go-to-market capabilities. Ice Cream has a very different operating model, and as a result the Board has decided that the separation of Ice Cream best serves the future growth of both Ice Cream and Unilever.
Following separation, Unilever will become a simpler, more focused company, operating four Business Groups across Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Nutrition. These Business Groups have complementary routes to market, and/or R&D, manufacturing and distribution systems, across both developed markets and Unilever’s extensive emerging markets footprint.
Unilever also owns Cornetto, Magnum, and Kwality Wall’s.
But dropping Ben & Jerry’s relieves Unilever of many troubles caused by the rabid anti-Israel company that enthusiastically joined the BDS movement.
Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000. The company maintained an independent board of directors to continue its far-left political advocacy.
In 2018, Ben & Jerry’s embraced antisemite Linda Sarsour to promote its “Resist” ice cream. The money from the ice cream supported pro-Farrakhan Women’s March and other anti-Trump groups.
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s chose to boycott the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” including the ancient Jewish quarter of Jerusalem.
The boycott led to a year filled with lawsuits for Unilever.
- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Israeli Company Sues Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever To Maintain License
- Ben & Jerry’s Sues Corporate Parent Unilever To Thwart Sale Of Branded Ice Cream In Jewish Quarter of Old City, Judea and Samaria
- Ben & Jerry’s Case: Judge Skeptical About Claim Of Irreparable Harm
- Israeli Students Troll Ben & Jerry’s Over Its Occupation Of Abenaki Land (UPDATED)
- Court Denies Ben & Jerry’s Request to Stop Unilever’s Already-Consummated Sale of Ice Cream Maker’s Israeli Business
- Ben & Jerry’s Ends Its Dispute With Unilever Over Ice Cream Brand Sales In Israel
A handful of states divested from Unilever over Ben & Jerry’s BDS actions.
Those states include Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, and Arizona.
Even more states passed laws preventing them from investing with companies involved in the BDS movement. Illinois started things off in 2015.
Ben & Jerry’s head got too big, though. On Independence Day, the company tweeted, “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.”
That tweet ticked off many people, including Native Americans. One leader of a tribe recognized in Vermont had a response:
Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation—one of four descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont—told Newsweek it was “always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands,” but that the company had yet to approach them.
It comes after the ice cream company was questioned as to when it would give up its Burlington, Vermont, headquarters—which sits on a vast swathe of U.S. territory that was under the auspices of the Abenaki people before colonization.
Ben & Jerry’s also lost $2.5 billion after the tweet, which resulted in many boycotts of the company.
When your virtue signaling goes catastrophically wrong https://t.co/USqvgA9RlW
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 7, 2023
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Comments
I will continue my boycott of Ben and Jerry’s – for both political and dietary reasons.
Unilever has too many brands to keep track of, so I’m sure I’m not properly avoiding all of them.
Truth is there is better ice cream out there than BJs. It is over priced and not that good.
Unilever also owns Cornetto, Magnum, and Kwality Wall’s.
So, are they spinning off all of those brands (including B&Js) into some Ice Cream company? Into a subsidiary? (Which means they’re still making money off of them; just at an increased distance of management.) Or somehow dropping B&Js so they’re on their own, and doing something else with those other 3?
Because it doesn’t look to me like they’re treating B&Js any different from the other three.
They dropped B&J because of it’s atrocious politics just take the win.
Because I like Magnum and want to know if it’s still tied at the hip to B&Js.
I always liked B&J’s “Cherry Garcia”…but sad for them I haven’t partaken of that (or any other B&J) flavor in over 25 years. Do they even still make it? Regardless…still not interested.
You can get their SoiBoi Suprememe; no nuts.
The answer to that won’t be known for a very long time unfortunately.
Maybe Larry David will buy the company. That way the patrons can enjoy 3 scrawny, smug, sneering tribesmen.
I bet it would be an attractive investment for Qatar. I’d pay to see that.
BJ went too far with its special edition Hamas Schutzstaffel Sherbet.
Unilever was so mesmerized by the radical label, that it perceived that as being the core source of sales of B&J and hence retained the bizarre assemblage of its board of directors. in fact this was a huge and costly mistake. No product can make a significant impact with radical politics, that is a small niche market as Disney and Budweiser have learned via painful lessons. The market is with product quality, value and shelf presence.
I have never purchased B&J because it is outrageously expensive. It fails on value and avoiding subsidizing its politics just confirms my choice.
Planet Fitness might be learning this lesson too
…. too late 🙂
I think it’s a sign that we’re winning. A few years back it looked like B&J was in the mainstream, as reasonable people jumped to self-immolate on the pyre of George Floyd or various other excuses. Now that trend has slowed down and is reversing, and so B&J no longer looks so good as a part of their portfolio.
I still keep a place in the Nulhegan Basin and am proud that my Chief was measured in his response refusing to get drawn into this nonsense but left the door open to reclaiming traditional lands.
Ben and Jerry’s was a great brand and I remember Ben speaking at my small college in VT. Seemed like a great guy at the time. Now we know the truth.
Politics aside, Ben & Jerry’s unique niche in the ice cream market is no longer unique. Big brands have added much more variety and premium micro churners with large mix-ins have popped up left and right much like the craft beer explosion.
B & J simply aren’t “unique” any more.
they have the retail outlets, I can only think of Stone Cold Creamery and Baskin Robbins being their only competition in that market.
Don’t forget DQ.
Not to be cliché, but I believe Unilever is finding out first hand what Budweiser did with its Dylan Mulvaney stupidity with Bud Light: Go Woke, Go Broke. Whenever a humungous multinational buys a smaller brand and attempts to keep it “boutique”, it never works. Invariably, the larger entity does something like putting it into catering operations on airlines (ever see the B & J ice cream cups on longer flights?), into chain stores where it loses its cachet (e.g. Walgreens, Target) and other situations where the “enlightened” (pronounced “ignorant”) elite (pronounced “effete”) lose interest because the brand is no longer “exclusive”. One example beyond the present circumstance comes to mind: when GMC bought Saab and tried to market the venerable Swedish car using American tactics. Saab was a very niche brand and a well made car until that time. GMC’s management proved disastrous and they ended the venerable brand. I don’t know what Unilever’s ultimate plan is, but perhaps they plan on spinning it off to get out from under the present management structure and retaining a majority of the stock while jettisoning the leftist board. Who knows…?
It’s not clear from the article what Unilever intends to do with Ben & Jerry’s. Does Unilever intend to sell the company to a third party (maybe Mr. Ben and Mr. Jerry would like to buy back the company)? Or, does Unilever intend to shut down the company and liquidate its assets?
Perhaps Bernie Sanders will buy it. He can try his hand at capitalism, keep it in VT with its other lefties and druggies, and have his very own international border to ‘manage.’
Bernie’s wife is a better choice. She has a reverse Midas touch.
While I agree on the vagueness, it looks like they’re spinning off all of their ice cream brands, and might keep them together as a unit in an independent company.
Time for woke progressive leftists like ben and jerry to lead by example and surrender their real estate for tribal casino?