As internal feud rages, Magnum says Ben & Jerry’s board chair not fit to serve

The Magnum Ice Cream Company has concluded that the chair of its Ben & Jerry’s brand no longer “meets the criteria” to serve as a board member after internal investigations, it says in an SEC filing, as an ongoing internal feud continues.

The Magnum-led ice cream venture, which also incorporates the Wall’s and Cornetto brands, is being spun off from consumer goods conglomerate Unilever in an Amsterdam listing now planned for December 8 after a delay of around one month due to the US government shutdown.

Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have been at odds since at least 2021 when the Chubby Hubby ice cream maker said it would stop selling in the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s has sued parent company Unilever over alleged attempts to silence it and called the conflict in Gaza a “genocide,” highly unusual for a major US brand.

Magnum did not name Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal in its SEC filing published late Monday and provided no details on which criteria it deemed the chair of no longer meeting. Magnum did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mittal could not immediately be reached.

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen warned last month that the corporate conflict with the parent company would become more pronounced once the spin-off is complete, as the brand will account for a larger percentage of Magnum’s business than Unilever’s.