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Ben & Jerry’s city staff owed THOUSANDS as franchisee row melts brand ethics

30 0
16.04.2026

The row, which critics say has melted away the ice cream company’s ethical image, erupted following the closure of the Scoop Shop in Chantry Place on August 31, 2025.

Ex-managers of the store and their team members - many of them teenagers - say they are still waiting for notice pay, holiday pay and redundancy totalling around £10,000.

But AIG Management Services Ltd (AIG), which ran the franchised branch, has allegedly insisted that the money will not be paid.

The Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop in Chantry Place. (Image: Facebook)

The store's former manager, who asked to remain anonymous, claims neither Ben & Jerry’s nor parent company the Magnum Ice Cream Company has offered meaningful support, forcing him to take his case to an employment tribunal.

But Ben & Jerry’s says it is "continuing to work with the franchise partner to understand any outstanding obligations".

Why have staff not been paid?

The pay row centres on a tangle of company structures that has left the Scoop Shop team, many of whom were saving money for university, unable to claim a penny.

Staff at the ice cream parlour were employed and paid by AIG Management Services Ltd, an umbrella company.

Its directors say it will not go into insolvency, meaning the government’s Redundancy Payments Service cannot step in to help.

The directors of AIG Management Services Ltd - Charlie Markillie, Kieran Ali, Richard Sharpe and Daniel Maund. (Image: LinkedIn/Facebook)

Another linked firm under the AIG umbrella, AIG BJ 2, has gone into insolvency instead.

But because staff were not paid through that company, they’ve been told they cannot claim the money they are owed from it either.

It has left workers at a dead end, with no way to recover redundancy, holiday or notice pay except by launching a tribunal claim, which is currently being........

© Eastern Daily Press