Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever, its dad or mum firm, of firing its chief government as a result of he allowed the ice cream maker to talk out on political points, based on a grievance filed in federal courtroom in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Within the submitting, Ben & Jerry’s mentioned Unilever had fired David Stever due to his dedication to the corporate’s social mission relatively than his job efficiency. He had held the ice cream firm’s prime job since 2023.
“Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, together with C.E.O. David Stever, ought to they fail to adjust to Unilever’s efforts to silence the social mission,” Ben & Jerry’s mentioned within the submitting.
Unilever knowledgeable the Ben and Jerry’s board on March 3 that it was planning to take away and change Mr. Stever as chief government, the submitting mentioned. This was executed with out the approval of an advisory board, and went towards an settlement the 2 firms signed when they merged in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s claimed within the submitting. It added that, “underneath Mr. Stever’s tenure, Ben & Jerry’s outperformed Unilever’s ice cream portfolio.”
In 2024, gross sales at Ben & Jerry’s grew sooner than at Magnum, one other certainly one of Unilever’s main ice cream manufacturers, based on a Unilever presentation on its monetary efficiency.
Below the acquisition deal between the 2 firms, Unilever agreed to let Ben & Jerry’s preserve an impartial board to supervise the model. This allowed Ben & Jerry’s to position “guardrails” round its social activism and gave its founders continued management of the corporate.
