SHR files lawsuit against Danica Patrick's sponsor

[intomidator]

http://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/ne ... or-871059/

Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed on Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit against sponsor Nature?s Bakery for a ?material breach of its contract.?

The Associated Press reported Thursday the lawsuit was filed in North Carolina Superior Court on Thursday seeking millions of dollars the company said the team was owed.

On Jan. 24, SHR confirmed it was still working out what the sponsorship situation looked like on Danica Patrick?s No. 10 Ford for the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
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?Nature?s Bakery is in material breach of its contract with Stewart-Haas Racing,? a statement provided to Motorsport.com said. ?It is an unfortunate situation, as the team has delivered on all aspects of its contract and was prepared to do so again in 2017.

?Ultimately, this is a situation that will be resolved in a court of law.?

SHR said its litigation with Nature?s Bakery would not impact the organization?s on-track efforts this season.

?Stewart-Haas Racing remains focused on its preparation for the 2017 NASCAR season where it will again field four entries in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series while also introducing a full-time NASCAR XFINITY Series team,? the statement said.

[txsmokegirl]

I wonder, did they not use her properly in their marketing which led their sales to falter or is Danica not driving sales like they thought she would?

[intomidator]

"I wonder, did they not use her properly in their marketing which led their sales to falter or is Danica not driving sales like they thought she would?"

Or perhaps it's simply that is "Danica not driving" like they thought she would - period - forget sales. Or, were she actually regularly producing quality race results - top tens, top fives, etc., would the sales have driven themselves?

To be fair - Nature's Bakery's "rationale" has been described in one report this way:

"... according to the lawsuit, Nature's Bakery took issue with Patrick using Instagram to promote Six Star Pro Nutrition Protein Powder, Purely Inspired Protein, home-made energy balls, a homemade spinach smoothie and various other home cooked meals ranging from ice cream to grilled cheese. SHR maintains none of those products is in competition with fig bars or brownies, and that Nature's Bakery "liked" most of the Instagram posts. An exhibit filed with the suit includes numerous Patrick photos from Instagram that show Nature's Bakery had "liked" the post."

Specious at best but taken at face value it's more ludicrous.

[awsum14]

Just my $.02's worth..
What was Natures Bakerys marketing department thinking when they made the agreement with SHR.
What was SHR thinking when they agreed to the sponsership.
Natures Bakery promised the world and only delivered Nevada.
They are in limited stores
The only advertising you see is when they sponser Danica's car on race day
I never heard of them until they signed and I buy fig bars all the time.
They were looking for a quick buck and they got it, for the first few months of the season and than it went back to normal.
SHR is at fault as well 'cuz they didn't do a complete finacial back round check before they signed for 2 years. Knowing that Natures Bakery was a small company.

As far as Danica performace , Nature Bakery knew what they were getting when they signed.

I step down from the soap box for the next members opinion....

(please excuse my spelling and spaceing, I'm on my 7" tablet with the sun coming thru the windshield.)

[HiddenHollow]

Thanks for posting this. I was not aware of it yesterday.

I found another article this morning from Bob Pockrass http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story ... ure-bakery

[intomidator]

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ ... m-45258330

However, the suit claims after executing the agreement, Marson and Nature's Bakery chief financial officer contacted SHR about "cash flow issues, and asked if payment amounts and deadlines" could be modified on the more than $15 million the company owes the team each season. SHR also accused the company of eventually concocting "a scheme to avoid further payments" by claiming Patrick had been endorsing competing products and was not using her social media presence enough to promote Nature's Bakery.

"The company, which sells fig bars and promotes healthy eating, has fewer than 500 employees in the United States. Its bars are sold in all 50 states and 22 countries. But SHR alleged in the suit the company faced numerous setbacks last year, including a lack of product distribution, recurring mold issues, a fire in its St. Louis, Missouri, plant and termination of its vice president of sales.

Based on my calculations and even with an estimate of a highly unlikely HUGE profit margin of 50%, Nature's Bakery would have had to increase revenue by 30% ($30,000,000) annually just to cover the $15,000,000 expense of sponsoring the #10.

It's not surprising to hear of the "termination of its vice president of sales". In sports, when a team is losing, the first person to go is normally the coach. In this structure the V.P. of sales is the surrogate coach and appears to be the scapegoat for what has turned out to be a really bad social experiment and financial "investment" by the Marson family.

[alenigma]

Gosh...what a Snafu! I found a package of the blueberry bars while in the Greenville area. They were filling and tasty but so dry I had to stop at a fire hydrant for water to wash them down...They don't make fudge but I guess the figures they presented to SHR were smothered in it!

[intomidator]

Thanks for posting this. I was not aware of it yesterday.

I found another article this morning from Bob Pockrass http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story ... ure-bakery

Lots of good articles available. I found this to be especially interesting:

"Nature's Bakery also asked for SHR to pay it more than $100,000 for boxes that could not be used after SHR switched from Chevrolet to Ford for 2017 and the boxes had cars with Chevrolet logos."

Based on the $!5,000,000/season figure (for 25 races) as primary sponsor plus secondary sponsorship and badging for the other 11 that's an average investment of slightly more than $400,000/race.

Given that the figure of one million dollars per race has been bandied about as being the nominal cost to sponsor a team was Danica discounted for Nature's Bakery or is the $400,000 per race a more accurate measure of the real investment by sponsors?

If the $400,000 is truly a cut-rate deal what does that say about the actual (rather than perceived) marketability of Patrick? Does that have any effect on bargaining leverage in future negotiations for ALL teams? Is it possible that the experiment by both SHR and Nature's Bakery with Danica might result in a fissure to the very financial foundation maintained between sponsors and teams?

[HiddenHollow]

[WildFrehley]

always got gene to sponsor her, oh wait, he was tight on money and couldnt afford to keep sponsoring ryan....