MONTPELIER, Vt. — Ex-hippie ice cream maker Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's says he has been getting some tough lessons in big business since his company sold out to the conglomerate Unilever.
Now, Cohen said Thursday, he worries that the food giant's promises of continued social activism may be melting away like a pint of Cherry Garcia left in the sun.
"Ben & Jerry's will become just another brand like any other soulless, heartless, spiritless brand out there — that's my concern," Cohen said in an interview.
Under pressure from shareholders, Cohen and partner Jerry Greenfield agreed in April to sell their baby, a Vermont ice cream maker with an image steeped in social activism and tie-dyed idealism, to Unilever, a British-Dutch food conglomerate. After the sale, Cohen and Greenfield remained as company employees and members of a separate Ben & Jerry's board.
Under the deal, Cohen was expected to get more than $39 million, and Greenfield was to get more than $9 million. The two were also to earn salaries of $200,000 a year.
The buyout came amid widely publicized assurances that Ben & Jerry's social mission would not be lost — assurances that a Unilever spokesman repeated Thursday.
"In its first 20 years, Ben & Jerry's opened only seven scoop shops with nonprofit partners," Stephen Milton said. "We're going to open five next year."
But Cohen said he is worried. His worries mounted last week when Unilever picked Yves Couette, a longtime executive from its ranks, rather than the Ben & Jerry's veteran favored by Cohen and Greenfield, as the new chief executive of the ice cream maker.
"The only way the social mission of Ben & Jerry's and the heart and soul of the company will be maintained is to have a CEO running the company who has a deep understanding of our values-led social business philosophy, who had experience with the company and with how that worked in practice," Cohen said.
Through an assistant, Greenfield declined a request for an interview.
However, a statement the two men released after the announcement of Couette's appointment said: "We have not decided whether or not to remain with the company."
Unilever's Milton said Couette, a Frenchman with experience working in the United States, Mexico and Indonesia, has the needed experience.
A list of the company's social objectives for 2001 includes helping to build playgrounds and launching a new flavor tied to that effort.