Unilever names spun-off ice cream division after Magnum

Unilever has chosen Magnum as the namesake for its ice cream division that should go public by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the company is once again at odds with activist brand Ben & Jerry’s.

“Extremely successful”

The name was chosen because, according to CEO Peter ter Kulve, Magnum is an extremely successful and loved brand, Dutch newspaper FD reports. The division also consists of Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto and Ola, and generated 8.3 billion euros in sales last year. Unilever is taking the company public separately because it thinks ice cream is too complex a business with too high costs associated to it. The multinational wants to focus on its strongest brands.

Meanwhile, tensions between the parent company and Ben & Jerry’s are escalating again, as the latter accuses Unilever of unfairly dismissing CEO David Stever because of his political activism. The ice cream brand has now even officially filed a complaint in a United States court, stating that when it was acquired by Unilever in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s was given an independent board to decide autonomously on the application of the company’s social mission. That agreement is now allegedly been violated.

Last month, rumours surfaced that founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield would like to buy ‘their’ brand back from Unilever. However, the multinational replied that the brand is not for sale.