A former Hormel Foods employee made off with top-secret sausage recipes and market intel before joining regional competitor Johnsonville, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

The Austin, Minnesota-based maker of breakfast sausage and more accused Johnsonville and two former Hormel employees of conspiring to “unlawfully obtain Hormel’s trade secrets,” per the suit. Hormel is asking for the return and deletion of confidential data as well as unspecified monetary damages.

“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 read.

Johnsonville did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Hormel also did not immediately provide further comment Thursday.

Per the lawsuit:

In June 2023, veteran Hormel employee Brett Sims joined Johnsonville as chief supply chain officer. Sims allegedly started trying to poach other Hormel employees to join him at the Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin-based sausage company in an apparent violation of a non-solicitation agreement. One of the employees Sims reached out to was Jeremy Rummel, who joined Johnsonville this spring after 25 years with Hormel.

Before telling Hormel he was joining a competitor, Rummel allegedly sent “product formulas, processing procedures, acquisition-target information and marketing-strategy information” to his personal email.

“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.

Hormel confronted Rummel, who confessed to sending the information to his personal email. Rummel then went 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.

Sims and Rummel did not immediately respond to an email Thursday, nor did an attorney named in the lawsuit who has worked with Rummel and Johnsonville.

According to the filing, Johnsonville did not cooperate when Hormel sent a letter “outlining Sims’ and Rummel’s violations of their agreements, detailing their unlawful behavior and asking for a number of assurances from Johnsonville.”

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