Creator Of David’s Tea Being Sued By Shareholders
Image by iStock
One of Canada’s highest-profile Jewish entrepreneurs is under attack from his own shareholders as the company he co-founded flounders.
Herschel Segal, who launched once-hip tea chain David’s Tea with cousin David Segal, is being sued by shareholders who want him ousted as chairman, the Globe and Mail reported this week.
Segal’s Montreal spokesperson declined to comment to the Forward on the lawsuit. But David’s Tea has faced nonstop problems since going public in 2016. The company had to retreat from an aggressive US expansion last year, telling CTV News it “didn’t understand” American tastes. Its stock “has been a disaster for IPO investors, unable to turn a profit and with high turnover in the C-Suite,” according to investment newsletter Seeking Alpha.
Segal cuts a huge figure in Montreal, where he founded apparel mega-chain Le Chateau as a single men’s clothing shop in Montreal in 1959. Though no longer an executive with the company, Segal remains a director, according to Bloomberg. He’s listed as a major donor to Montreal’s Jewish Public Library and the new Jewish Museum of Montreal, and serves on the board of directors of KlezKanada, an annual festival.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
