West Liberty Foods is seeking more than $3 million from Kraft Heinz Food Company, claiming Kraft Heinz breached its contract when it stopped delivering turkey breast meat in September.
A hearing on the case will be held in U.S. District Court in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 30.
According to the Quad-City Business Journal, West Liberty Foods filed an emergency order for a preliminary injunction against the company for failing to fulfill the terms of its contract reached on December 2014.
The emergency order follows a complaint filed by West Liberty Foods in September, alleging that in the agreement, Kraft agreed to supply 5 million pounds of turkey breast meat during 2015 at a price of $2.20 per pound. The complaint also notes that Kraft had informed West Liberty Foods on September 2 that it would not be making any additional deliveries of turkey breast meat after September 8. The complaint further states that under the contract, Kraft Heinz still owes West Liberty Foods 2.8 million pounds of turkey meat.
Other legal action against Kraft Heinz
This is not the first time in 2015 that Kraft Heinz has been taken to court over allegations that it failed to meet its contract obligations as a supplier of turkey meat.
Earlier in October, a Pennsylvania judge ordered Kraft Heinz to honor its contract with Mrs. Ressler’s Food Products and provide 36,000 pounds of turkey breast meat twice a week for the remainder of the terms of the contract.
Kraft-Heinz had claimed it was unable to meet the terms of the agreement because of losses to the turkey supply brought on by the avian influenza outbreak.
Both the contract with West Liberty Foods and the one Mrs. Ressler’s were signed prior to the Kraft Foods was purchased by H.J. Heinz and the Kraft Heinz Food Company was formed.
