The distributor of beers and other drinks from here Transbroue is in turmoil: some of its business partners claim to have a strained relationship with the company, owned by the Triani Group, which is slow to give them the proceeds from the sale of their drinks. In a lawsuit filed August 11 in Montreal, they collectively claim just over $635,000.
“There was a breach of trust. We tried to find solutions with the partner. They have somewhat remained a dead letter. It was not with light heartedness that we initiated a lawsuit,” says Bastien Poulain, president and founder of 1642, which produces tonics and other non-alcoholic drinks.
According to documents filed in Superior Court on August 11, Transbroue owes 1642 $95,542.
Four microbreweries are also signing the lawsuit: À l’abri de la tempest, from Îles-de-la-Madeleine, La Chouape, from Saint-Félicien, Brasserie Générale, from Charlesbourg, and Champ libre, from Mercier, near Châteauguay. Club Kombucha completes the group of six plaintiffs.
Transbroue deals in particular with the representation and sale of microbrewery beers and other beverages. At the end of the summer of 2022, this well-known distributor in the brewing world changed hands: by buying the Glutenberg group, Triani became the owner of the Oshlag and Vox Populi breweries and of Transbroue.
Triani was already operating in the beverage industry. The company started by bottling imported wine around 2015, before expanding with the purchase of other companies, still in the world of beverages, alcoholic or not.
“The problems really started with the acquisition by Triani,” says Anne-Marie Lachance of Shelter from the Storm. There was already a delay in payments by Transbroue, but communication was good. She was more difficult with the new owners. The Îles-de-la-Madeleine microbrewery finally decided to leave Transbroue in the spring, at the end of the contract that bound them. She is now claiming $141,403 in this joint lawsuit.
The other complainants contacted by La Presse all confirm irregular payment terms, delays and strained relations with Triani.
This led to the consolidation and joint lawsuit of the six SMEs in which it is stated that Transbroue “failed to remit to the plaintiffs significant sums in connection with the sale of their products”.
For some of these SMEs, the sums claimed are essential to the pursuit of their activities, it is indicated in the lawsuit.
It is a couple of entrepreneurs who are behind Triani: Tristan Bourgeois Cousineau and Joannie Couture.
Reached late Tuesday morning, Tristan Bourgeois Cousineau, president of the company, claimed to have still not received the lawsuit, but specified that he himself is in dispute with the former owners of Glutenberg.
“The process is going to court with the former shareholders,” he said, saying the transaction contained irregularities, but preferring not to give further details, the process being in the hands of the courts.
“It’s a series of lawsuits,” says Tristan Bourgeois Cousineau, implying that it is the situation in which the transaction with Glutenberg would have placed the company which would be the cause of its non-payment to its co-contractors.
In its legal proceedings, Triani argues that Glutenberg’s minority shareholders – thus excluding the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, which invested $2.5 million in the group in 2017 – provided misleading information about Glutenberg’s stocks. business and lost a lot of money as a result. He is claiming $1,047,815 from them, in response to the original lawsuit brought by one of the former shareholders who is suing Triani to recover an amount withheld from the sale price. The lawsuit is still ongoing and the positions of each of the parties are disputed.
Tristan Bourgeois Cousineau specifies that he would prefer to go through a mediation process, both with the microbreweries and with the former shareholders of Glutenberg, rather than through the courts.
On Wednesday morning, Bastien Poulain and his company 1642 received a settlement proposal from Transbroue lawyers.
However, if 1642 accepts this proposal, it must in particular undertake “not to harm the operations” of Transbroue, Triani or its subsidiaries, it is stated in the document, obtained by La Presse. More specifically, the administrators, shareholders and representatives of 1642 “undertake not to make, either directly or indirectly, statements that damage the reputation” of the group.
In the event of non-compliance with this commitment, 1642 would have to pay a penalty of $25,000.
Bastien Poulain did not accept Transbroue’s proposal.
Pierre-Hugo Houle is president of the Brasserie Générale. With $154,225, this small Charlesbourg business is claiming the largest sum in the common lawsuit against Transbroue. Its president spent a large part of his month of July transforming his business model and his business forecasts to adjust to this lack of cash, which is appreciable in his assets. “We save the furniture,” he said.
The commercial relationship between Transbroue and this brewery is recent. Pierre-Hugo Houle had already done business with this distributor and came back to him at the beginning of this year, attracted by Transbroue’s turnkey service. This is a consignment agreement: Transbroue charges customers on behalf of the brewery and must remit the monies collected under the terms of the agreement.
“I never experienced what we are experiencing today with Transbroue with the old administrations,” he said.
The beers of the Brasserie Générale are still distributed by Transbroue, which pays it part of the sums due, irregularly and with delays, according to Pierre-Hugo Houle, who says that this way of doing things is “systemic” since several fellow brewers shared similar experiences with him privately.
For its part, the Champ libre brewery decided to sever its ties with Transbroue in the spring rather than continuing the professional relationship with the new owner, Triani.
“The scheme, I saw it coming quickly,” says Patrick Cool, president of Champ libre, explaining that small businesses can feel stuck in this situation and decide to stay in a relationship with a partner even if the payments are not. not paid as provided for in their agreement. This entrepreneur describes the brewing community as a world of passionate, hard-working people.
“It should never have come into the equation, a player like Triani,” he said. Especially not against our will, because they bought Transbroue. »
According to the lawsuit registry, the Triani Group has been sued 22 times since 2019; Vin Triani has been sued 9 times and has herself been a plaintiff in another lawsuit since 2018. This excludes lawsuits against Transbroue or the directors of the company.
Sometimes conflicts turn into crossfire: Triani is both the initiator of the lawsuit and the party being sued, as is the case with Glutenberg. This is also the case in a dispute between the Ontario company Black Fly and Thirsty Beverages, a beverage company.
Because in addition to distributing beer, cola or kombucha, Triani owns companies that produce alcohol or buy it from partners. In 2018, Thirsty and Black Fly reached an agreement for the production of alcoholic beverages by Thirsty, intended for the Quebec market, but the deal turned sour.
Court documents cite several points of contention, from the beginning of the professional relationship, including sales amounts not remitted to Black Fly. “It became crystal clear that Thirsty Beverages was not paying Black Fly for Quebec sales of Black Fly products, but collecting the money from the sales and keeping it,” is detailed in a written examination filed on the court record. .
It also evokes a difficult relationship with Tristan Bourgeois Cousineau.
Black Fly claimed more than $558,856 for this case, but in counterclaim, Thirsty Beverages in turn claimed a little more than $301,852 from Black Fly, in particular because it should have invested to ensure the production and promotion of these beverages in Quebec. This case was settled out of court last June.
There are also cross-lawsuits in a dispute with another former partner, the microbrewery Simple Malt Brasseurs, of Saint-Eustache.
This time, Triani first claimed $416,651 owed to it by Simple Malt Brasseurs, which in 2018 produced beers for the Les 2 Frères brand, purchased by Triani that same year.
In an interview, the president and general manager of Simple Malt, René Huard, confirms that he produced the beers for Les 2 Frères, but believes that it is rather he who was wronged in this story since Triani had to make sure to distribute the drinks. Mr. Huard claims that Simple Malt would have been taken with a stock of beer to sell itself, while Triani would have taken control of the billing.
Simple Malt Brasseurs is seeking more than $440,000 from Triani in its response to Triani’s original lawsuit.
“My business, he says, is my pension fund,” says René Huard.
According to Mr. Huard, the situation is all the more sad because it affects people who have invested a lot of time and money to set up and make their businesses prosper.
The two sides are expected to meet in court next month, as in this case there is no settlement in sight.
