Mel Redman
An attorney for Redman & Associates, a Rogers company currently embroiled in legal action with a Chinese toy manufacturer, said he has subpoenaed records from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville.
Mark Henry of Fayetteville said Redman & Associates, which filed an amended $40 million lawsuit against Sales Chief Ent. (Hong Kong) Co. LTD in February, asked for documents to determine Wal-Mart’s internal decision making, a list of any visits by Ellen Liu and any emails between Liu and Wal-Mart officials.
Liu is the executive director of Sales Chief. Henry said Redman & Associates has also subpoenaed records from Pacific Cycle, a Canadian vendor R&A claims Sales Chief used to bypass its agreement with Redman & Associates.
“For all intents and purposes, we are moving forward,” Henry said. “We know what happened on our side.”
Sales Chief filed a partial motion to dismiss four of Redman & Associates’ five complaints Friday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in Fayetteville. R&A originally filed its lawsuit in September but re-filed an amended complaint after Sales Chief’s first partial motion to dismiss in February.
Redman & Associates claim that Sales Chief cost it a three-year, $70 million contract with Wal-Mart for R&A’s Nuvzn Technologies LLC to manufacture 6-volt battery-operated toy cars for the retailer. Sales Chief, which manufactures 6-volt and 12-volt toys, had used R&A as its Wal-Mart vendor for the toys, and Redman & Associates said it sold 1.1 million units in Walmart stores in 2013.
R&A had planned to produce 100,000 of the annual 600,000 order in the first year through Bentonville Plastics while using Sales Chief for the remainder of the production. By the third year, R&A would manufacture the entire order.
Redman & Associates, which said it had paid Sales Chief $62 million during its partnership, said Sales Chief changed its payment terms with Redman & Associates in an effort to undermine its deal with Wal-Mart. Redman & Associates said Wal-Mart canceled its contract Sept. 15, 2014.
Sales Chief’s dismissal motions are nearly identical and called Redman & Associates’ lawsuit a “jingoistic attack” to cover for Mel Redman’s business failures. Redman is the CEO of Redman & Associates, which has 14 days to respond to Sales Chief’s dismissal motion.
Redman & Associates emailed a statement that disputed Sales Chief’s characterization of Mel Redman as a failed businessman. Redman was an executive with Doctors Community Healthcare Corp. of Scottsdale, Arizona, which filed for bankruptcy shortly after firing Redman in September 2002.
Redman and his wife, Vicki, later filed for personal bankruptcy, and Mel Redman testified for the liquidation trust in its bankruptcy trial against the DCHC.
Redman settled the liquidation trust’s lawsuit against him and told Arkansas Business the ordeal cost him about $800,000 in legal fees.
“This was not Mr. Redman’s company, but a corporation that was privately held and run by a board of directors,” the email statement read. “Redman’s robust merchandising experience includes 25 successful year with Walmart, including setting up and running the Canadian division of the world’s largest corporation, followed by 20-plus successful years in his own marketing consultant services, Redman & Associates.”
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