There is a war in Ukraine.
In May, a mention of the Russian invasion war appeared in the annual report of the ice cream giant Froner. The company avoided using the word war for a long time and previously described the killing of Ukrainians with the confusing phrase “geopolitical event in Russia and Ukraine”.
Despite the recognition of the war, Froner’s business in Russia continues almost as before. It has not withdrawn from Russia, unlike many other Western companies.
The group is also a major producer of several Finnish ice creams. It owns Penguin, Classic and Aino ice creams. The Finnish company also produces ice creams owned by large retail chains and Fazer ice creams, which Fazer has even considered withdrawing from the market completely.
Russian trade expert Kari Liuhto accuses Froner of misleading consumers and calls the company’s business in Russia, among other things, “a clumsy business”.
– Here you can see this kind of backbiting. Yes, it embarrasses me a bit, even as a professor of international business.
The pair of images below shows how, as recently as June 2023, Froneri described the Russian war of aggression as a “geopolitical event in Russia and Ukraine”. In its new annual report Froneri has changed his expression and is talking about the war in Ukraine. It states that public opinion about the company’s operations in Russia can cause reputational damage and loss of income.
The professor criticizes double standards: “One with nothing”
Froneri manufactures and sells several ice cream brands in Russia. Its Moscow factory has almost 350 employees.
Staying in Russia seems to have been a profitable decision for Froner’s local subsidiary.
Due to the sharp fluctuation of the ruble exchange rate, a direct comparison is difficult, but the turnover and profit of Froner’s Russian company has only increased during the war years, according to Checko.ru, a website that compiles company data.
In recent months, the company has explained its stay in Russia several times.
Most recently, in March, the Froneri Group reported in its announcement About the “strict isolation” of its Russian operations.
According to the group, it does not withdraw profit from Russia, and it has no monetary transactions with the Russian subsidiary.
In his November announcement, Froneri for the first time mentioned and condemned the war in Ukraine – almost two years after the start of the major attack. The company said it was “deeply saddened by the continued loss of so many lives”.
It expressed its apologies three days after had published an extensive report on the Russian connections of Finnish ice cream brands.
Professor Liuhto criticizes Froner for double moralism.
– We condemn, but we act. In the end, actions count, not words. The actions have not changed.
Liuhto reminds that the situation is the same for other companies as well, because banking traffic is largely frozen due to the sanctions against Russia.
– When the profits can’t be repatriated to the West anyway, stating it on paper is actually just as empty, he says.
We asked those celebrating the hot day in Helsinki how they feel about the continued presence of Western companies in Russia:
The Russian ice creams were replaced with almost identical copies
Froneri also says it has removed its international brands from the Russian market.
The claim is misleading.
Previously, Froneri manufactured Mövenpick, Maxibon and Extrême ice creams in Russia, among others. After the start of the big attack, these have been replaced by ice creams called Monterra, Maxiduo and Sunréme, according to Froner’s Russian website.
You can compare by sliding the difference between old and current ice cream brands here. Fresh photos taken from Froner’s Russian website this week. The old images were still visible on the same pages in March 2022. The images were acquired with the help of the Wayback Machine.
– These products are practically the same. So the company is plagiarizing itself. I think it’s a pretty clumsy move and misleading consumers, says Professor Liuhto.
offered the international Froneri group the opportunity to respond to the criticism presented in this story.
In a general response sent through the communications office, Froneri repeated what it had said in the press releases about the isolation of its Russian operations and said that it strictly monitors this principle.
Froneri is one of the world’s largest ice cream manufacturers. It is half owned by the Swiss food giant Nestlé and the French investment company Pai Partners.
Foreign companies operating in Russia pay taxes with which the state runs its military economy. Russia still plans to raise taxes to finance its war of aggression.
The multinational food industry giants Nestlé and Unilever still operate in Russia. They too have reduced their operations, such as Froneri, which has, among other things, stopped investments in Russia and the import and export of raw materials and products to the country.
A top American university Yale researchers describe the activities of companies as “playing for time” in Russia.
– Companies should not assume that in a couple of years they will continue as before. It’s self-deception. The war will leave a decades-long mark on Russia’s reliability, says Liuhto.
Froneri tells that the decision to stay in Russia is “very difficult” for him. The company justifies its stay primarily with the well-being of its local employees and the fact that its business in Russia could fall into foreign hands.
Liuhto thinks the ice cream company’s explanation is lame.
– Companies should start to understand what this is really about. Now it’s full-scale war.
– If this were to happen to us, how would we interpret the fact that companies from another country continue to work with an attacker?
Fazer is considering removing its ice creams from the market
Most of the Finnish ice cream brands are still linked to Russia through Froner and Unilever, the large company that produces Ingman ice creams.
After ‘s news, at least Linnanmäki, VR and many smaller companies have removed ice cream from these manufacturers from sale.
Froneri also produces Fazer ice creams. The ice cream group’s explanations are clearly not enough for Fazer.
Fazer tells that it has tried to find another producer for its ice creams, but none has been found.
– The most extreme of the options on the table is that Fazer ice creams would be completely removed from consumers’ access, the company’s communication says.
However, according to Fazer, this decision has not been made. It would have an impact on the supply of domestically produced ice cream and the jobs at the Tureng ice cream factory.
– However, this does not mean that we will let it be. We actively keep the topic open and continue to monitor the options, says Fazer.
According to Fazer, the management of Froner’s Finnish company has raised concerns about Russian connections in the group and influenced the fact that the group finally condemned the war.
Retail chains do not take responsibility
A large number of large Western companies still operate in Russia. Many of them feel that the pressure to cut ties with Russia has begun to ease, he said The Financial Times on Tuesday.
Kari Liuhto brings up the former president of the United States to Abraham Lincoln of the combined quote:
– You can fool some people all the time and all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool everyone all the time. There is now a point where consumers here in the West should react, says Liuhto.
He also calls for the responsibility of retail chains to inform consumers about the matter. This is how Alko has operated, for example, which started to include information on the Russian connections of some of its products on the price tags.
K-chain, S-group and Lidl did not directly answer ‘s question about whether they themselves see such a responsibility. Froneri Finland produces some of the Pirkka ice creams, the Kotimaista ice creams of the S chain and Lidl’s own ice creams.
Liuhto has a call for western companies still operating in Russia. If they don’t want or can’t leave the country completely, they should figure out how to direct the profits from Russia to children’s hospitals in Ukraine, for example.
– You would think that people would even want to buy more ice cream if they knew that it was going to a good cause.
– Now here is the taste of blood ice cream.