Svante Lind’s Best Choice Eggs business is merging with Ontario Pride Eggs, a co-operative started by 11 Ontario egg producers in Eastern Ontario and the Toronto area in 2009.
The merger comes after Lind has complained that Joe Hudson of Burnbrae Farms Ltd., Bill Gray of Gray Ridge Egg Farms Ltd. and the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board have conspired to drive him out of business. Lind has filed lawsuits against the three.
Ontario Pride took over Monkland Egg Grading Station and has been gradually expanding by becoming the first to be able to market certified organic eggs and by linking with Groupe-Nutri-Group, a nation-wide business that operates through a number of subsidiaries including the farmer-owned co-operative Nutri-Oeuf in Quebec, Countryside Farms in Nova Scotia and Manitoba Pride Eggs. It is also involved with Supreme Egg Products, a processing business on the site of the former Global Eggs business in Toronto.
Best Choice has sent letters out to its customers and suppliers informing them about the merger, which is how the news was discovered.
Lind has not issued any news release nor is he communicating with reporters.
Lind has another business, Verified Eggs, which provides traceability for niche-marketing eggs, such as free-range and organic eggs. Through Rowe Farms and Green Valley, its eggs are marketed by those businesses to Loblaws, Fortinos, Great Canadian Supermarket, Sobey’s Metro and A&P supermarkets.
Verified Eggs sells directly to a number of retail outlets, such as the Longo’s supermarket chain Grocery Gateway’s home delivery service, Whole Foods stores, Fiesta Farms, The Big Carrot and Oriental Supermarket.
I'm wondering how big the damages might be if and when Lind persuades a judge that he was forced into this merger by the dirty tricks of Bill Gray and Joe Hudson. Of course, all of the allegations remain to be proven in court. Provided the motherlode of electronic e-mails and data is allowed into the court case, the proof should be relatively easy to establish.
In fact, if the electronic data makes it in, look for Gray and Hudson to seek an out-of-court settlement. All of which should make them wonder why they're spending so much on lawyers.
