27 June 2006 – Original Juan Specialty Foods in Kansas City (OJSF) continues to hold Cafe Tequila Brand Products hostage in spite of termination of the agreement on September 26, 2005 for late payments and non-performance. The royalties from Original Juan did not even begin to cover operating expenses since signing the agreement and Cafe Tequila has incurred huge legal fees because of their non-compliance with the termination.
In addition to continuing to produce and sell Cafe Tequila sauces, Original Juan has unashamedly copied the award winning packaging of Cafe Tequila and have been selling a competing version of their Pain is Good steak sauces in the copy cat version creating a confusion in the marketplace.
“In our opinion, OJSF is most evil group of people we have encountered in the gourmet food industry and I regret that we trusted their representations during negotiations.” said, John Fielder, El Presidente y CEO of Cafe Tequila.
We now believe that they viewed us as an easy target for a takeover and had no intention of marketing and selling our line of Tequila Sauces in a manner that would make our investors and creditors whole.
OJSF is most evil group of people we have encountered in the gourmet food industryWe have also discovered and believe that they hid information from us during negotiations about their past business history that would have precluded us from entering into any kind of business agreement with them. Cafe Tequila has missed several potentially profitable business opportunities because of OJSF behavior. I intend to seek an injunction against OJSF as soon as possible and seek damages. I may also include distributors and brokers in the lawsuit who knowingly sold the knock off version of our trademarked and proprietary packaging after being informed of the situation, said Fielder.
It is beyond our understanding why Original Juan would ignore our totally defensible and justified termination according to the terms of our contract and continue producing our products and then copy our packaging to boot! said Fielder. This is destroying the viability of our brand and ability to move forward with a new business model. We intend to seek damages for the harm that they have caused our brand.
Cafe Tequila made a splash when it arrived in the marketplace with a one of a kind innovative line of tequila sauces and prize-winning packaging. It won the coveted packaging award from the NASFT in 1999 and many more in other national competitions. Robert McMath of the New Products Showcase said, “It’s one of the most innovative packages in the category we’ve ever seen.”
In a feature article, Packaging Digest editor Bernie Abrams wrote, “The package can be summarized with a single word and that is ‘attitude’”
In addition, the six unique sauces have twice been awarded with the Award of Excellence by the American Tasting Institute in blind tastings by many well-known executive chefs. It has also been awarded dozens of other top awards for the sauces. Thomas Stegmaier, former executive chef of the of the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco and who used several of the sauce in the hotel kitchen said, “These sauces are outstanding.”
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Contact: John F. Fielder
(415) 264.0106