Greensburg Beverage sues Pittsburgh competitor

Owners of a Greensburg beverage company are suing a Pittsburgh competitor, claiming it attempted to sabotage the business through the use of confidential information received as part of a potential purchase of the firm.

Greensburg Beverage Inc., in an eight-count lawsuit filed last week in Westmoreland County, said it sustained major financial damages when Wilson-McGinley Inc., a distributor located on Pittsburgh’s South Side, attempted to steal beer suppliers last year.

Wilson-McGinley, according to the lawsuit, was granted access to private records and information about Greensburg Beverage as part of a court-negotiated attempt to sell off the company. It used that information to sour Greensburg Beverage business dealings, the lawsuit alleges.

“WMI’s endgame was to impair GBI’s contractual relationships with its suppliers and to delay the sale long enough to exact a devastating financial toll on GBI,” the lawsuit states.

Wilson-McGinley and its owner, John C. McGinley, did not respond to a request for comment Friday about the allegations.

Greensburg Beverage served as a beer distributor to customers in Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington and parts of Allegheny counties. The company was sold to a Johnstown distributor earlier this year.

The lawsuit alleges that Wilson-McGinley claimed it sought to purchase the Greensburg distributorship but secretly worked behind the scenes to sabotage the company’s relationships with its existing beer suppliers to create financial stress for the company.

“Specifically, WMI believed that GBI’s collapse would provide WMI with a windfall since such a failure would have created a fire sale for GBI’s brand rights, which would have thus allowed WMI to swoop in and acquire GBI’s assets for pennies on the dollar,” the lawsuit alleges.

Greensburg Beverage is seeking compensatory damages of more than $250,000 and unspecified punitive damages from the Pittsburgh distributor.