Unilever, which makes everything from Axe body sprays to Vaseline, is scooping Ben & Jerry's and its other ice cream brands out of its lineup and cutting 7,500 jobs as part of an ongoing growth plan.
The London-headquartered multinational conglomerate – one of the world's largest consumer goods companies – said Tuesday it will spin off its ice cream brands including Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Wall's and Popsicle into a standalone business.
The separation, which will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, will help Unilever increase its focus on its other brands. Unilever made it clear it was open to a sale of its ice cream brands in its announcement.
Separating out ice cream is being served up as part of Unilever's action plan, which the company announced in October 2023, "to drive growth and unlock potential," the company said at the time.
Unilever will eliminate 7,500 jobs, "predominantly office-based roles globally," the company said Tuesday, after identifying "additional efficiencies that can now be accelerated," as part of the action plan.
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“The separation of Ice Cream and the delivery of the productivity programme (sic) will help create a simpler, more focused, and higher performing Unilever," said Unilever chair Ian Meakins in a statement. "It will also create a world-leading ice cream business, with strong growth prospects and an exciting future as a standalone business.”
Ice cream accounted for 13% of Unilever's sales in 2023 at $8.6 billion – the lowest amount of its five product units – the company said in February. It also had lowest sales growth (2.3%) over the year.
In comparison, sales grew more than 8% for Unilever's beauty and wellbeing (Dove and Pond's beauty products) and personal care (soaps including Lux and Lifebouy) units.
Unilever's other two remaining core business groups will be Home Care (Comfort and Surf detergents) and Nutrition (Hellmann's mayonnaise and Knorr soups).
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