Hi everyone and welcome to the interview and analysis corner! This week, I wanted to go into a little more detail on the break up between Unilever and Ben and Jerry’s and discuss the search for a corporate identity in the food industry.

While the Ben & Jerry’s-Unilever partnership wasn’t meant to be, at least the world-renowned ice cream company is free to speak its mind.

Let’s dig in.

It’s often said that the only thing worse than divorced parents are parents that should be divorced. And, honestly, I would apply that sentiment to both domestic and corporate environments.

Indeed, when one of the largest food companies in the world - Unilever - announced that it would be separating from Ben & Jerry’s to make it a standalone business, this was a great example of when two parents finally went their separate ways.

Why I Like This Story

To answer this question, we have to start in 1978 when Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened their first ice cream scoop shop in a renovated Vermont gas station.

In addition to their skyrocketing popularity as ice cream makers, Ben and Jerry became famous for their political activism, which still remains central to their company’s identity.

The company was proud to be the first ice cream maker in the world to use Fair Trade Certified ingredients back in 2005, declared “We Must Dismantle White Supremacy” in the aftermath of the George Floyd incident in 2020, and makes it a point to state that they source only from family-run dairy farms to support local communities and the environment.

In short, Ben and Jerry’s is a curiously rare case of a massive company, commanding a huge presence in the ice cream space, that also maintains a voice of its own.

An Unlikely Partnership

Then, in 2000, the British food conglomerate - Unilever - bought Ben and Jerry’s for $326 million. To say that this was an unlikely pairing would be an understatement.

As part of the deal, Ben & Jerry’s was allowed to have a fully independent board of directors – meaning that it was, essentially, free to speak its mind without the consent of the Unilever overlords.

But as 21st-century geopolitical and social tensions escalated, whether regarding Roe vs. Wade or the Israel-Palestine conflict, real friction between Unilever’s corporate impartiality and Ben and Jerry’s liberal voice appeared more frequently.

Unilever consistently made it a point that the views of the ice cream legend were not representative of Unilever as a whole and, in fact, the Ben and Jerry’s board sued Unilever in 2022 over the decision to sell ice cream in Israel.

24 years after the partnership was announced, Unilever called it quits on its ice cream division, citing both that in-store freezers account for 10% of its greenhouse-gas emissions and that ice cream sales have been lagging in recent months.

Whatever the case, I suspect that both Unilever and Ben and Jerry’s were relieved.

A Corporate Identity

This little piece is by no means an endorsement of all of Ben & Jerry’s political and social views. However, this saga demonstrates something that, I feel, has been sorely lacking in the food industry: the existence of influential companies that stand for SOMETHING.

Whether campaigning for the fair treatment of African Americans or simply showcasing from where it sources its ingredients, Ben and Jerry’s is not afraid to publicly display their core principles, despite their $101 billion market capitalisation.

This kind of transparency and communication from a huge player in the food industry appeals to a specific segment of the global community and, in turn, generates trust.

Indeed, it seems that whenever events of global importance take place, I frequently see bland corporate messages of sympathy and impartiality that are primarily used to preserve a brand image that appeals to as many people as possible. Unsurprisingly, I find myself trusting those companies less.

I admire companies that refuse to be faceless and that would forgo appealing to as many consumers as possible, for the sake of profit, in order to communicate their beliefs and to express their identity.

It can be as simple as being closed on a Sunday - Chick-Fil-A - to observe Christian doctrine of Sunday mass.

Especially in today’s food industry that is still being manipulated by smoke and mirrors, I would really like to feel that a company is trying to communicate as best as possible with the people, to whom it serves its food.

Ben and Jerry’s holds many views, some radical and some inspired. Whatever they are, their communication has earned my respect.