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.

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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