Johnsonville Sued by Competitor Over Sausage Secrets
Company accused of trying to poach Hormel employees and gain trade secrets.
A sign for the Johnsonville company is seen in this 2009 image. Photo courtesy of RoilBroil via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
A former Hormel Foods employee allegedly attempted to share trade secrets with Wisconsin-based competitor Johnsonville.
That’s according to a lawsuit Minnesota-based Hormel Foods filed in a federal court last week against Johnsonville and two former Hormel employees who now work for the Sheboygan Falls-based competitor.
The complaint alleges Johnsonville conducted a “coordinated effort” to poach Hormel employees and obtain Hormel’s proprietary information.
A spokesperson for Hormel said in an email that the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but the company believes “that our complaint speaks for itself.”
Roughly two years ago, Johnsonville hired Brett Sims, a Hormel employee who oversaw some sausage production, the suit says. As a Johnsonville employee, Sims allegedly solicited Hormel employees, violating a non-solicitation provision in his contract with Hormel.
The lawsuit says Sims’ efforts were “directly responsible” for Johnsonville hiring defendant Jeremy Rummel and “at minimum” two other employees. The complaint says Rummel and the other employees left Hormel in May to join Johnsonville, and all admitted that Sims recruited them.
While he was still employed by Hormel, Rummel forwarded “highly sensitive confidential, proprietary and trade secret information” to his personal email “without any Hormel business reason to do so,” according to the complaint.
The information he sent to his personal email included formulas, processing procedures, marketing strategies and “significant information related to Hormel’s sausage manufacturing process and products,” court documents say.
“The only reasonable interpretation of Rummel’s actions is that, in sending Hormel confidential business information and trade secrets to his personal email account immediately prior to beginning competitive business activities with Johnsonville, Rummel was attempting to take Hormel’s confidential business information and trade secrets to Johnsonville,” the suit states.
After Hormel learned of Rummel’s actions, the complaint says the company interviewed him. Rummel allegedly denied sending confidential information to his personal account, until Hormel presented evidence from his email records. The company also allegedly asked him to submit his phone for a forensic examination.
After the interview, court documents say Rummel visited Sims’ home in Sheboygan and also met with a corporate lawyer for Johnsonville while still employed by Hormel to develop a plan “to protect his new role at Johnsonville.”
Hormel “forensically imaged” Rummel’s cell phone and email on May 30, the same day the company fired Rummel for cause, the complaint says. Rummel had accepted employment with Johnsonville the month before, according to the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, both Sims and Rummel had been employed by Hormel Foods for more than 20 years. They each signed legal agreements with the company, pledging not to share proprietary information or solicit employees when they left the company, court documents say.
Johnsonville did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The complaint says both Sims and Rummel are currently employed there.
Hormel Foods is asking the court to require Sims and Rummel to comply with their agreements, as well as require Rummel to destroy or delete any trade secrets in his possession and return or destroy any proprietary information provided to Johnsonville or any other third parties. Hormel is also seeking damages and reimbursement for legal fees.
Johnsonville sued by competitor over alleged effort to poach employees, share trade secrets was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
