Nestlé Waters North America, recently rebranded as BlueTriton after a sale, is charging in a lawsuit that driverless “forklifts” wreaked havoc on its bottling plants.
BlueTriton is suing John Bean Technologies (JBT), which supplied and installed automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) designed to transport pallets in Nestlé’s two U.S. water plants, for breach of contract. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court, charges that one of the AGVs caught fire while recharging last September, leading Nestlé to ground all 51 of the vehicles, according to Law360.com. Nestlé terminated the contract with JBT the following month.
The lawsuit also charges that the AGVs repeatedly broke down and that they collided several times with storage racks and other fixtures, on one occasion causing thousands of pounds to fall from a fifth-level rack. BlueTriton is seeking JBT to remove the AGVs and related equipment from its plants and pay compensatory and punitive damages.
Nestlé filed the lawsuit in March, shortly before it spun off the North American waters division to investors including C. Dean Metropoulos. The new company, renamed BlueTriton, is carrying on the suit.
