It looks like it was a private lawsuit, not one initiated by a state agency.
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Good article. They didnât get a lot more concrete info, but it seems that they tried!
Ma Bel and Baby Bel
They got confirmation from additional current and former employees as well as from two of Belcampoâs suppliers. They established that the problem was not limited to one store. They got the name of two managers who allegedly ordered non-Belcampo meat, one of whom allegedly directed employees not to let Fernald know about it. They verified that Belcampo continued to claim that it was raising chickens on its farm after it closed its poultry operation.
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Anya Fernald May be able to deny any direct knowledge of managers/corporate/finance people that may have made these decisionsâbut certainly does not absolve her any of the blame.
Seems she care more about the branding and face of belampco and paying lip service to transparency and integrity to know what was truly happening on the retail end. Employees reported she never even acknowledged them when coming into the restaurants and that she cared more about the social media influencers who had credits up to $1000/mt to spend there.
Another nice article with perspectives from meat industry experts.
The LA Times is so late on this that I wonder if they somehow dropped the ball.
Garry Embleton has been the âco-CEOâ since last August, which might mean that he was handling the day-to-day operations and Fernald was focusing on evangelism and the like.
From last May, reads a little different now.
Belcampo, which sells organic meats at a premium in boutique butcheries in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, has seen in-store butcher shop sales nearly quadruple, and online sales explode.
Anya Fernald, Belcampoâs CEO, said her company was able to handle the surge because it farms its own animals in Yreka, Calif., and owns its own small slaughterhouse, sparing it from the broader industry turmoil.
âWe control our own supply chain,â she said. âThis is a time when local butchers can really shine.â
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And thatâs not the only instance of her touting belcampos supply chain during the pandemic. According to @erikafairtrade she was on IG live multiple times reassuring customers on the health of their supply chain.
The silence from major news outlets on this corporate fraud is pretty deafening.
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To date, itâs not clear that anyone above local managers was involved in the fraud. I presume reporters at places like the WSJ and Business Insider are looking for credibile allegations of something more than higher-ups not paying attention.
So theyâre negligent then
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That much seems indisputable. The question is how far up the org chart was the fraud planned or covered up.
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Rehash. No new information that I can find.
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LA Taco chiming in. Not much new info either but at least they spoke to 4 different employees
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I believe mislabeling is a norm.
You just keep believing, Butch. Thatâs what youâre good at.
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Thereâs a lot of new reporting in that LA Taco article, including quotes from a former Oakland store employee.
Whatâs most notable about all the statements and Fernaldâs apology is the pattern of trying to isolate these incidents of mislabeled meat or supplemented supply from outside sources to just the Santa Monica Location and attributed that supply disruption to COVID. But the employees that L.A. TACO spoke to outlined that these practices were much before 2020 and as early as 2018.
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From a Forbes listicle today:
BelCampo : With the code SubscriptionSavings , you can take $30 off BelCampoâs fabulous meat deliveries.
Thanks Buddy .
Iâve been watching for more reporting on this, particularly about Oakland, given that LA Taco quoted an ex-employee of that branch, but nothing. I exchanged email with one reporter whoâd been looking into it but they couldnât find any sources.
They updated https://belcampo.com/pages/response with this refund offer:
Since May 31st, 2021, we have instituted a policy of issuing refunds to all customers who believe they may have been affected by external sourcing issues. If you believe you were affected by this incident, please visit https://belcampo.com/refund to request a refund.
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I feel like I havenât seen any quotes from affected/angry customers, which with social media you think would be the easiest sources to find. The belcampo near me seems to be about as busy as it always is.