By Selina Lum

THE knives are out in a legal tussle between two butcheries run by parties related by marriage.

Swiss Butchery has sued Mr Ernst Huber, its managing director up till January last year, for breaching his duties to the company.

It has accused him of setting up rival Huber's Butchery, of diverting away its business, of stealing its trade secrets and equipment, and of poaching its staff.

Mr Huber has also been accused of defamation - of spreading word among expatriates that with his dismissal, Swiss Butchery was being run by Asians and would thus lose its European flavour.

The other defendants in the suit are his sons, Ryan and Andre, their firm Huber's, Huber's Butchery and Swiss' former operations manager Thomas Norbert Kreissl.

Mr Huber, who still holds a one-third stake in Swiss, has gone on the offensive: He has sued the company and his relatives by marriage, namely his wife's brother Alex Wong, her sister Wong Huai Lam and her brother-in-law Don Foo.

Mr Huber has alleged that his wife's siblings and Mr Foo have oppressed him as a minority shareholder by conducting the affairs of the company in a manner that discriminated against him.

Mrs Huber is not a party in this fight in court. The two suits have been consolidated and 10 days from next Monday have been set aside for the hearing.

Swiss Butchery, set up in 1994, has gained a reputation as a European-styled butchery selling premium meat products to wholesale and retail markets.

In his minority-oppression suit, Mr Huber has claimed that he had intended the business to belong to him and his wife, but Mr Wong and Mr Foo persuaded him to allow them to invest in it.

He has claimed it was verbally agreed that he would always be in control of the company's operations and its board of directors. He has also said he used his expertise and business contacts to build up the company, and that the others were passive investors.

Later, his sons separately joined the company as employees. In June 2005, he named his older son Ryan as his successor and proposed allotting shares to him as an incentive. The other shareholders disagreed and both sons eventually left, setting up Huber's in early 2007.

In December 2007, Mr Foo was made a director of Swiss in the face of objections by Mr Huber. This development made Mr and Mrs Huber the minority in the five-member board. In January, Mr Huber was asked whether he was prepared to sell his stake in the company, but there was no conclusion to this. It was then that the other directors terminated his employment on the spot. Mr and Mrs Huber were later removed as directors.

However, Mr Huber's version is being disputed by the other side, who have said the business was set up jointly as he did not have the capital at the time.

Mr Wong and Mr Foo have contended that they managed the company and Mr Huber ran its day-to-day operations.

They have asserted he was fired because he had breached his duties to the company and was the mastermind behind Huber's. They have also alleged he visited suppliers to persuade them to supply to Huber's instead of Swiss, and diverted a deal with NTUC FairPrice for a retail operation at Bukit Timah Plaza to Huber's.

Mr Huber has also been accused of taking steps to cancel Swiss' meat- processing licence and of telling customers to order from Huber's; he also allegedly poached staff and got Mr Kreissl to take supplier and customer lists, secret recipe guides and other confidential information from Swiss.

Swiss has accused Mr Huber of transferring equipment to Huber's, crippling its meat-processing abilities and leaving it with no choice but to buy products from Huber's - at double the price. Mr Huber has denied these accusations.

His explanation for the cancellation of the licence and the taking of the equipment is that this was in line with the decision of Swiss in March 2007 to stop its wholesale business and focus on retail.

He has also denied making defamatory remarks, saying he only told customers he had been fired. He has said his sons set up Huber's without his instructions.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.