Employee at popular meat company steals its secret recipe and then goes to work for competitor

So that’s how the sausage is made.

A former employee at Hormel Foods, a Fortune 500 packaged meat company, left with top-secret sausage recipes and market information — and then joined its regional competitor Johnsonville, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

The stew started after longtime Hormel employee Brett Sims landed the role of Johnsonville’s chief supply chain officer in June 2023, and then allegedly began poaching Hormel employees to also join the staff at the sausage company, based in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, which was in violation of his non-solicitation agreement.

Sims brought in his former Hormel co-worker Jeremy Rummel this spring, who left Hormel after 25 years, as per The Star Tribune.

Before he broke the news to Hormel that he was about to work for its competitor, Rummel allegedly sent “product formulas, processing procedures, acquisition-target information and marketing-strategy information” to his personal email address.

“Rummel was attempting to take Hormel’s confidential business information and trade secrets to Johnsonville for the express purpose of exploiting the information for Johnsonville’s benefit and to Hormel’s detriment,” the suit said.

After Hormel confronted Rummel, he fessed up to emailing himself the confidential information and then promptly headed to Sims’ house “with the intent to share the details of his interview with Hormel and develop a plan to protect his new role at Johnsonville,” according to the lawsuit.

Hormel, which was founded 130 years ago and is also behind brands like Skippy, Spam and Planters, is accusing Johnsonville and the two ex-employees of conspiring to “unlawfully obtain Hormel’s trade secrets.”

“The sausage market is increasingly competitive, and improper use of confidential, proprietary and trade-secret information, or wrongful competition or solicitation, could cause a manufacturer significant competitive economic disadvantage,” the suit continued.

To make matters worse, when Johnsonville was sent a letter from Hormel “outlining Sims’ and Rummel’s violations of their agreements, detailing their unlawful behavior and asking for a number of assurances,” the company did not cooperate, the suit claims.

Sims and Rummel did not immediately respond to the Star Tribune’s email, nor did an attorney named in the lawsuit.