Magnum Ice Cream says Ben & Jerry’s chair, an anti-Israel activist, unfit to serve

LONDON — The Magnum Ice Cream Company has concluded that the chair of its Ben & Jerry’s independent board “no longer meets the criteria” to serve after internal investigations, according to a securities filing late on Tuesday, the latest twist in an internal feud.

The spat between Magnum and the Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s brand is heating up as consumer goods conglomerate Unilever prepares for the spinoff of the Magnum ice cream division in early December, which has been delayed by a month due to the US government shutdown.

Until the spin-off, Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum are both ultimately owned by Unilever.

Ben & Jerry’s website names Anuradha Mittal, the executive director and founder of the Oakland Institute, a think tank, as chair of its independent board focused on advancing the brand’s progressive social mission.

Magnum said in a filing that after commissioning investigations by external advisers, it found that the current chair “no longer meets the criteria to serve as a member of the Ben & Jerry’s Board.” Magnum did not give any details on the nature of the investigations.

Unilever has previously said the board has evolved into advocacy for controversial and polarizing topics such as the war in Gaza, a change driven by Mittal, who spearheaded the ice cream company’s 2021 decision not to sell in the West Bank. She has also been accused in the past of self-dealing.

Magnum said in the filing that it informed Ben & Jerry’s board about the investigation and will consider its options depending on the response it receives.

It is unclear what action Magnum can take, however, as the board was set up to operate independently when Ben & Jerry’s was bought by Unilever 25 years ago.

According to the merger agreement from 2000, replacing most board members requires a majority vote from the board, which is capped at 11 members. Ben & Jerry’s parent company has at least two spots on the board, according to the agreement.

Both Magnum and Unilever declined to provide further clarity. Mittal did not respond to a request for comment.

B&J co-founder: ‘Deliberate attempt to rewrite history’

“This is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history and strip the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of the legal authority it was guaranteed,” Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said in a statement.

Ben & Jerry’s has already sued Unilever over alleged attempts to silence it and called Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza a “genocide,” a charge strongly rejected by Israel.

Magnum in the securities filing warned it could face additional lawsuits from the board.

Cohen said Magnum was targeting Mittal and trying to grab power that would ultimately destroy the long-term value of the brand.

He warned last month that the conflict with the parent company would likely become more pronounced once the spin-off is complete, because the brand will account for a larger percentage of Magnum’s business than it does under Unilever.

Reuters could not establish whether Magnum, which plans secondary listings in New York and London, would be able to remove the chair.

Unilever expects Magnum, which had revenues of 4.5 billion euros ($5.25 billion) in the first half of 2025, to command just over one-fifth of the approximately $88 billion global ice cream market and compete with rivals such as Nestle-backed Froneri. In the securities filing, it says that Ben & Jerry’s is the second-largest ice cream brand in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.