Milwaukee Brewing Company is being sued by Melbourne, Florida-based Kona Gold Beverage Inc. for an alleged breach of contract that involved a contaminated batch of one of its products.
According to a civil lawsuit filed in Wisconsin Eastern District Court, Milwaukee Brewing Company provides Kona Gold with a specialty lemonade beverage named “Ooh La Lemin.” A batch of the lemonade received by Kona Gold last August allegedly had an issue with its taste. Upon further inspection, it was discovered the batch of lemonade had been contaminated with yeast.
“…It was determined that the product was contaminated by yeast via the filling stations at the Milwaukee Brewing facilities,” according to the complaint in this case.
Kona Gold Beverage is seeking damages in the amount of $100,365 because of the contaminated batch of lemonade. This total includes lawyers’ fees.
The filing of this civil lawsuit comes as Milwaukee Brewing Company leadership plans to sell the company and its assets. Company leadership has tapped New Mill Capital, a manufacturing asset acquisition and disposition firm, to help them seek buyers for their downtown Milwaukee brewery, ale house location, equipment and intellectual property.
Doug Rose, founding partner at Rose & deJong, legal counsel for Milwaukee Brewing Company, said Wednesday the civil lawsuit has nothing to do with the company seeking buyers.
“Kona Gold is a customer of Milwaukee Brewing Company and is in dispute over a flavor variance of one of their products,” Rose said. “This claim by Kona Gold is wholly unrelated to Milwaukee Brewing Company’s recent decision and public announcement that it is for sale. We feel the Kona Gold claim will be resolved shortly and have no effect on the sale of the company.”
Jessika Osantowski, director of marketing at New Mill Capital, said Wednesday the firm has received a large amount of interest from buyers seeking to acquire Milwaukee Brewing Company.
“We are currently wading through all of it and allowing interested parties to receive the requested information,” Osantowski said. “There is no time table to report beyond that right now.”
