Summit Brewing see 2 ex-employees, alleging sharing of trade secrets

Reads 953 • Replies 12 • Started Friday, December 30, 2016 10:43:01 AM CT

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Message TheHOFF43 P beers 2045 º places 169 º 10:43 Fri 12/30/2016 This is interesting... http://www.startribune.com/summit-brewing-sues-two-former-employees-alleging-sharing-of-trade-secrets/408662995/
Message JK beers 7296 º places 442 º 10:50 Fri 12/30/2016 Allegedly sharing with Surly. I can’t imagine why Surly would have any interest in Summit’s marketing and distribution plans.
Message TheHOFF43 P beers 2045 º places 169 º 10:54 Fri 12/30/2016 Two similarly sized breweries competing against each other...why would they not have interest?
Message BVery beers 13631 º places 750 º 10:03 Sat 12/31/2016 If this was a serious strategic problem, why the hell would Summit be looking for a lousy $50k?

Message CLevar places 23 º 11:00 Sat 12/31/2016 "At minimum"
Message StefanSD beers 2449 º places 57 º 11:00 Sat 12/31/2016 Originally posted by BVery If this was a serious strategic problem, why the hell would Summit be looking for a lousy $50k? Most likely they could care less about the $$ or the "Secrets," rather, they are sending a message to current employees that these actions have real consequences. You don’t want to set a precedent that it is OK to let your company’s proprietary data get pilfered, so you sue to set an example.
Message JK beers 7296 º places 442 º 14:26 Sat 12/31/2016 $50,000 is boilerplate, merely affirming the controvery exceeds $50,000.
Message erway beers 1004 º places 41 º 09:00 Tue 1/3/2017 I would get used to these kinds of suites. The industry is growing, but growth has slowed, especially among the countries largest breweries, in large part due to saturation in the market. You will start seeing more and more non-compete clauses, you will start seeing much higher salaries for the biggest talents, you will start seeing wide-spread head hunting, you will start seeing big severance packages. In all, it will be a really good atmosphere for the really great employees... I only hope that this continues to be a friendly industry and I think it can.

Message beastiefan2k P beers 5012 º places 294 º 11:18 Tue 1/3/2017 Originally posted by erway You will start seeing more and more non-compete clauses, you will start seeing much higher salaries for the biggest talents, you will start seeing wide-spread head hunting, you will start seeing big severance packages. In all, it will be a really good atmosphere for the really great employees... I think you may not be thinking of the vast majority of employees at breweries, including brewers. The majority of brewers seem to work for breweries that make dull beer, have little input on what gets brewed and when, and make low wages. I have come across a few brewers that work for a second company where they have more freedom and creativity in brewing. There seems to be a glut of available brewers, maybe this varies regionally? Of course, the top brewers will be in high command.
Message CLevar places 23 º 12:25 Tue 1/3/2017 Add to the above list the active recruitment of those top brewers (or really, anyone with a moderate amount of industry experience). With all of he breweries open and opening, there seems to be a serious lack of trained/experienced labor force. Yeah, a lot of the new places are started by home brewers gone pro, but as folks try to expand to fight for the last bit of space and stake their claim on taplines, etc experience is going to be key.
Message erway beers 1004 º places 41 º 13:31 Tue 1/3/2017 Originally posted by beastiefan2k Originally posted by erway You will start seeing more and more non-compete clauses, you will start seeing much higher salaries for the biggest talents, you will start seeing wide-spread head hunting, you will start seeing big severance packages. In all, it will be a really good atmosphere for the really great employees... I think you may not be thinking of the vast majority of employees at breweries, including brewers. The majority of brewers seem to work for breweries that make dull beer, have little input on what gets brewed and when, and make low wages. I have come across a few brewers that work for a second company where they have more freedom and creativity in brewing. There seems to be a glut of available brewers, maybe this varies regionally? Of course, the top brewers will be in high command. First off, you are thinking of small breweries and these just are not that. The majority of brewery employees are not brewers themselves, and the majority of them work at fairly sizable breweries. What you are saying was certainly true when I entered the industry and is still true today of your novice brewery worker, but pay for experienced brewers and brewery employees has far outpaced inflation and I know many experienced brewers that are being offered six figure salaries at this point. Add onto those the vast numbers of CFOs, marketing directors, sales directors, logistics managers and you have a growing number of craft brewing employees (notice I didn’t say owners) that are making very good salaries and that is a result of supply and demand. There are still plenty of people barely making a living wage in craft breweries, but if they are at all valuable they will either move up in their company or they will be lost to another company willing to pay them more than they are currently getting paid.