Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is accusing Westrock Coffee Company of poaching talent and stealing trade secrets in a lawsuit filed late last year.
The leading U.S. milk cooperative, which provides co-packing services for RTD coffee beverage brands, alleged that Westrock, a private label coffee and tea manufacturer of poaching talent and stealing trade secrets in a lawsuit filed in November in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri Southern Division.
The complaint also names six former DFA employees, now employed by Westrock, as codefendants, all of whom are cited for alleged breach of contract for supposedly violating non-disclosure agreements. They include food safety leader Brian Izdepski and Rebecca Huckabay, previously DFA’s manager for forecasting and scheduling and now an assistant plant manager for Westrock. Dustin Slagle, Cedric Smith, Patricia Bethurem and Julia Isakson were also named in the suit, though their respective roles were not immediately clear.
According to the complaint, a whistleblower – identified only as a current Westrock employee – first informed DFA of the alleged trade secret theft on May 6, 2024.
The tipster claimed the aforementioned former DFA staffers – who are now working at Westrock’s Conway, Arkansas production facility – were actively recruiting current DFA employees to join Westrock, and that they had “secretly obtained confidential and proprietary DFA quality assurance procedures, formulas, pricing information, and food plans,” along with pictures of DFA’s manufacturing lines.
The allegations center primarily on a private joint venture agreement DFA has with an unnamed but “extremely popular” ready-to-drink coffee and energy drink brand, which “on information and belief, Westrock is directly soliciting the joint venture to manufacture the identical products that DFA is currently manufacturing.”
Reached by BevNET, Westrock Coffee Chief Legal Officer Bob McKinney said the company acknowledges the lawsuit but firmly denies the allegations.
“At Westrock Coffee we are, and have always been, committed to conducting our operations with the highest standards of integrity, professionalism, and ethical responsibility,” McKinney said in a statement. “Our company and employees take pride in upholding these values in every aspect of our work, ensuring transparency, honesty, and accountability in all our dealings.”
“We believe that a comprehensive review of the facts will demonstrate not only our compliance with legal standards, but also our unwavering dedication to ethical business conduct,” he added.
As of this month, two of the individual defendants – Izdepski and Bethurem – have supplied answers to the complaint denying the accusations made against them, but there’s been no other major developments in the case since then.
While the company denies any anticompetitive behavior, Westrock has been open in recent years about its ambitions to become a major international coffee competitor.
Westrock opened the 524,000 sq. ft. Conway, Ark. facility that is at the center of the lawsuit last year and the company suggested at the time that it would be the “largest roasting-to-RTD operation of its kind.”
Hiring top industry talent to support its growth plans has been part of its stated strategy, as the company told BevNET last year.
DFA declined to comment on pending litigation.