Nestle south America is struggling to cling into its right to sell frozen California Pizza Kitchen Inc. pies as the chain rearranges in bankruptcy court.
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), widely acclaimed for its delectable and exotic pizzas such as Original BBQ Chicken and Jamaican Jerk Chicken pies, filed for bankruptcy in July and recently declared in court papers that it desires to cancel its trademark agreement with Nestle as part of its rearrangement plan.
“CPK must not be permitted to manipulate and control the bankruptcy procedure to unwind a decades-old licensing deal which functioned as an effective sale of its frozen pizza business to Nestle,” the American unit of the Swiss packaged food brand declared this on Thursday while objecting to the pizza chain’s plan.
In 1997, California Pizza Kitchen vended off the rights to sell frozen pizzas in the U.S. and Canada to Kraft. Nestle received the contract when it purchased Kraft’s frozen pizza business in a 2010 deal for $3.7 billion that also encompassed DiGiorno and Tombstone.
The two firms are in ongoing talks to find a solution over this dispute, as per the Nestle’s court filing. The document is heavily revised and the company moved successfully for related papers to be sealed.
Nestle inquired that the pizza chain’s reorganization plan comprise language that validates its rights to sell the frozen pizzas.
During early October, CPK abandoned the auction where it decided to sell some or all of its properties when it didn’t received any qualified bids by the deadline. That probably leaves its lenders as the new owners of the company.