RI Daniele’s charcuterie company faces challenges, taxes and unpaid bills

According to Tanya Sierra, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County District Attorney’s office, Burgett pleaded guilty to two charges; six others were dismissed. On Aug. 14, Burgett, 51, was sentenced to three years of probation with one year of GPS monitoring. He was ordered by a San Diego Superior Court judge to complete a 52-week domestic violence program and a protective order prevents him from contacting his wife and child, according to California court documents obtained by Globe.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Burgett sent a letter to his colleagues in which he wrote that his Crohn’s disease medication had made him “unrecognizable” to friends and family and led to a “reckless incident” that involved his wife.

“Mr. Burgett’s decision to resign from e2p to focus on personal matters has nothing to do with Artisans de Charcuterie,” an e2p spokesperson said in a statement sent to the Globe. “Other members of the e2p team , which has doubled in size in the past two years, continues to work with Artisans de Charcuterie.”

Burgett and his attorney did not respond to Globe requests for comment.

When e2p acquired Daniele in 2019, the Burrillville plant fluctuated between 600 and 800 employees and the Dukcevich family had just finished financing a $100 million deal that included a 90,000-square-foot factory. About 90% of that space was dedicated to the aging and drying process required to produce traditional prosciutto and salami.

A year later, e2p merged Daniele with Creminelli Fine Meats, a Salt Lake City-based producer and distributor of charcuterie and protein snacks that was founded in 2007, and named the new entity Charcuterie Artisans. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

e2p completed its debut investment fund, Venture Capital Partners Fund I, in May 2021, raising $423 million from investors. Venture Capital Partners Fund II, which closed at the end of May, raised $546 million. The firm has $1.7 billion in assets under management, according to trade reports. But Burgett’s departure from e2p triggers a provision that protects investors from changes in fund management and could prompt investors to vote to force e2p to halt any new investments, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We are now rapidly working through the details of his departure from the firm,” Ross Lovern, an external spokesman for e2p, wrote in a statement to the Globe. “Our broad and highly experienced team remains focused on creating value for our investors, extending the strong performance of our portfolios to date.”

The firm is now led by managing partner Christopher “CJ” Fraleigh, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fraleigh did not respond to The Globe’s requests for comment.

While the management changes at c2p may not directly affect the meat company, Artizanii de Charcuterie has had to deal with issues of its own. The company’s plant at 1000 Daniele Dr. in Burrillville was sold for $100.85 million to CTA Mapleville (RI) LLC in 2021, and Burrillville Deputy Tax Collector Melissa Dupontto told the Globe that as of Aug. 22, the company was delinquent in 2023 and 2024. taxes.

For 2024 alone, the company owed more than $56,700, which includes interest. A tangible account was also delinquent for this package, which totaled more than $7,100, Dupont said.

Spokespeople for both Artisans Charcuterie and ep2 did not initially respond to questions from the Globe about back taxes. Instead, spokeswoman Hilary Simons wrote in a statement to the Globe that the business is operating as normal. A few days later, on August 27, Simons told the Globe that the company’s tax payments to the city of Burrillville “are current.”

In January 2023, Daniele recalled nearly 53,000 pounds of sausage products for possible Listeria contamination, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two months later, in March 2023, the company laid off nearly 50 workers due to “market conditions and economic uncertainty nationwide.”

Simons said Aug. 23 that Charcuterie Artisans has nearly 660 employees and would not confirm the exact number of employees affected by a recent layoff. Instead, Simons wrote, the number of full-time employees “who left our company in the past month was less than 3 percent of our workforce and reflected the efficiencies we have achieved in operating our business.”

“Charcuterie Artisans is the largest and most automated domestic producer of its product set,” Simons wrote. “Our brands have more than $100 million in combined revenue, making our company the recognized leader in the deli market.”

Alexa Gagosz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow a @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.