This company is not gherkin around.
It's been said that a pickle is a cucumber with experience. Certainly they've been around long enough, with some people claiming that the popular side dish was first developed for workers building the Great Wall of China,
Others believe they were first made as early as 2030 BC in the Tigris Valley of Mesopotamia, using cucumbers brought originally from India.
Nearly 4 million Americans wolfed down six jars or more of the things in 2020, according to Statista, proving that where there's a dill, there's a way.
But now a Boston-based company is saying "hold the pickles" after it slapped a lawsuit on a rival firm for allegedly stealing proprietary secrets.
Grillo’s Pickles filed a complaint against New Jersey-based Patriot Pickle, Food & Wine reported, alleging that Patriot stole Grillo’s recipe and used it to produce pickles for Amazon's (AMZN) -) supermarket chain Whole Foods.
Sharing Trade Secrets
These particular pickles are being sold under Whole Foods’ 365 label and priced roughly 30% less than Grillo’s.
In the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, Grillo’s writes that the 365-branded pickles “list identical ingredients and nearly identical nutrition facts as Grillo’s."
“Patriot willfully and maliciously, and without authorization or consent from Grillo’s, has shared Grillo’s trade secrets,” the lawsuit said.
Peter Piper himself could not have predicted a more pestiferous predicament.
The complaint said Patriot had access to Grillo’s recipe while it worked as a co-packer for Grillo’s pickles, and it’s now using both Grillo’s process and recipe to make its own line of pickles.
The complaint said that when Grillo’s brought Patriot on as a co-packer to help manufacture, package, and ship Grillo’s pickles, the two companies signed a mutual nondisclosure agreement.
By signing that document, Patriot said it would “maintain in trust and confidence and not disclose to any third party or use for any unauthorized purpose any” of Grillo’s pickle-making secrets.
Charges 'Massive Violation of Trust'
Grillo’s terminated its partnership with Patriot in the summer of 2021, the lawsuit said, but Patriot did not return all of its copies of Grillo’s recipes.
Grillo’s got its start as a pickle cart in Boston in 2008, when founder Travis Grillo decided to share his grandfather’s century-old pickle recipe with the public.
"Patriot Pickle is trying to profit off of Grillo's 100-year-old family recipe and our trade secrets," Adam Kaufman, President of Grillo's Pickles, said in a statement.
"It's a massive violation of trust and a disappointment that after nearly a decade of partnership, our former co-packer, Patriot Pickle, has violated our agreements and is producing a nearly identical line of pickles for one of our biggest retailers, threatening to permanently damage our business," he added.
Grillo’s, which sued Patriot and ARKK Food Company earlier this year in another pickle case, is asking for emergency injunctive relief, which would put at least a temporary stop on Patriot’s pickle production, as well as a permanent injunction and damages.
Patriot Pickles has asked a judge to dismiss the case, saying Grillo's hasn't proved its claim.
Nobody relishes a court battle but, in this case, let's hope that justice is brine.
