Plaintiff Files Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit Against TW Garner Food Co.

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Oct 05, 2023, 10:00 ET

After a Year, Texas Pete^®Lawsuit Looks to Come to an End

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Oct. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A motion was filed on September 28, 2023, by Phillip White asking the court to dismiss his entire lawsuit against TW Garner Food Co. regarding the Texas Pete^® brand. With TW Garner Food Co.'s approval, the court dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety today. This concludes a yearlong lawsuit filed against TW Garner Food Co.–which has consistently maintained that the claims were false.

Ann Garner Riddle, a member of the Garner family and the company's current President and CEO, said: "We at TW Garner Food Co. are delighted with this result. Since the lawsuit was filed, we have remained steadfast in our position that our product labels and trademark are truthful and not misleading in any respect, and that the lawsuit had no merit."

On September 12, 2022, Phillip White, a resident of California, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against TW Garner Food Co., the North Carolina-based family business that has been producing Texas Pete^® hot sauce and other popular food products for nearly 100 years.

In his lawsuit, Mr. White alleged that he was confused by TW Garner Food Co.'s use of its trademark Texas Pete^® on hot sauce products, which, White said, caused him to believe that the products were made in Texas when, in fact, they are made in North Carolina. According to White, he would have paid less for a hot sauce made in North Carolina than the approximately $3.00 that he paid for a hot sauce he believed was made in Texas.

TW Garner Food Co. denied each of Mr. White's legal claims and material factual allegations on numerous grounds, including that the back label of its Texas Pete^® hot sauce products identify North Carolina as the geographic source of the products.

To learn more about Garner Foods, please visit www.garnerfoods.com.

About Garner Foods

Headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, Garner Foods is famous for its Texas Pete^® Hot Sauce, a leading brand of hot sauce in the U.S. Founded in 1929 as a maker of barbecue sauce, the company now sells a full line of hot sauces, wing sauces, and seafood sauces under the Texas Pete^® brand, as well as salsa and tortilla strips under the Green Mountain Gringo^® brand. Garner Foods products are sold in supermarkets, military commissaries, convenience stores, and restaurants throughout the U.S. Green Mountain Gringo^® Salsa was named America's best-tasting salsa by Delish.com in 2018.

SOURCE Garner Foods