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Bimbo plays hardball with executive who knew too much

An executive at Horsham-based Bimbo USA is barred from joining rival Hostess because he knows too much

    by Joseph N. DiStefano
    Published 

Pan Bimbo is the Wonder Bread of Mexico - and much more: It's used profits from its near-monopoly control of the Mexican sliced and packaged sugared-bread markets to build up Grupo Bimbo USA, based in Horsham, through acquisitions of Arnold, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Freihofer's, Stroehmann's, Thomas' English Muffins, and other supermarket breads and cakes.

This Bimbo plays hardball: In a recent federal court case, Bimbo's lawyers at Morgan Lewis & Bockius convinced a federal judge in Philadelphia not to let a Bimbo executive move to rival Hostess.

Read Shannon P. Duffy's account in the Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer here. Highlights:

"In his 37-page opinion in Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. v. Botticella, U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick granted a preliminary injunction, ruling that Chris Botticella, a former senior vice president at Bimbo, cannot start to work for Hostess Inc. because his extensive knowledge of Bimbo's trade secrets makes it substantially likely, if not inevitable, that he would disclose Bimbo's secrets to Hostess...

"According to court papers, Thomas' English Muffins generate about $500 million in annual sales for Bimbo, and there are three secrets for making their 'nooks and crannies' texture -- the recipe, the engineering and the process. Most Bimbo employees know only one of the secrets, and Botticella was one of just seven people with knowledge of all three... As a senior vice president earning $250,000 plus bonuses, Botticella was in an elite group that had access to Bimbo's competitive planning, including product launch plans and strategies for cutting costs and securing lucrative contracts for store-brand products, Surrick found." So he took the unusual step of barring Botticella from working for a competitor.