LaCroix owner National Beverage stock price sinks after new lawsuit

Another lawsuit filed against LaCroix is taking the fizz out of its stock.

Shares of National Beverage Corp., the parent company of LaCroix, fell more than 10% Tuesday after a new lawsuit alleged that the president of National Beverage planned to falsely state that LaCroix’s cans were free of Bisphenol A, the toxic chemical commonly known as BPA.

The suit, filed Thursday in Passaic Superior Court, claims that Albert Dejewski, a former LaCroix executive, was wrongly fired after he wrote an email to National Beverage President Joseph Caporella raising objections to the company’s plan to announce that its cans were BPA free. National Beverage denied the claims in a statement to Business Insider.

“As of April 2019, all cans produced for LaCroix products were produced without BPA liners,” the statement said. “The FDA has stated BPA liners are safe and pose no risk at the trace levels found from its use in can linings of food and beverage products.”

The lawsuit is the second leveled against LaCroix in the past year. In October, a suit alleged the company was lying about its claims that LaCroix was “all-natural” and that it in fact contained artificial ingredients, which LaCroix has denied.

Laurent Grandet, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities, wrote in May that the brand is “unlikely to rebound,” and that the company is “effectively in a free fall.”

LaCroix sales have plummeted 9.4% over a 12-week period that ended in May, according to Nielsen data, as customers have opted for one of many other competing sparkling-water brands.

In March, the company reported that profits declined 40% to $24.8 million while revenue fell 2.9% to $220.9 million.

National Beverage was down 34% this year through Monday.