Did you hear the news that Unilever will be spinning off all of it's ice cream business? It's true, though the headline often says ice cream spin-off and a cutting of 7500 jobs, but those jobs are at Unilever, not the ice cream businesses (not that some jobs cant be cut later). This includes Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Magnum, Klondike, Good Humor, Cornetto, etc. The spin off will probably be completed in 2025.
Various news sources are spinning the news different ways. One side is spinning it because Ben & Jerry's is too progressive, and another take is that Americans are eating less ice cream, but I think the most common answer is that it's all about profit, and the ice cream business just doesn't have that big a profit margin, despite how much air and lower quality ingredients that they might spin in to our favorite treat.
Does anyone remember some new stories from a few years ago that mentioned Unilever might spin off the weaker ice cream brands like Breyers, Good Humor, and Klondike? I can't seem to find those articles now.... wait,
here is one article at least! There were rumors that they were contemplating selling off about a third of the business back in late 2022.
Could this spin off lead to a revitalization of any of these brands? Maybe. I won't hold my breath, but I can hope. I definitely feel like some of these brands have been unusually quite recently compared to their non-Unilever competition, and technically this could explain why.
If you have any thoughts, leave them in the comments below.
