A woman who followed in her father’s footsteps by founding a steel building firm is accusing her brother and sister, who also lead steel building companies, of threatening her vendors.
Danton Wirth, “an icon in the metal building manufacturer world,” as his daughter Lisa puts it, started Denver-based Sunward Steel Buildings in 1972. Its president is now Amy Wirth, Lisa’s sister.
Lisa Wirth, meanwhile, co-founded ROI Metal Buildings, which is headquartered in Tennessee. Danny Wirth, their brother, is the president of Metal Building Outlet Corp. in Littleton.
At the end of last year, Sunward sued Lisa Wirth and ROI, accusing them of using stolen trade secrets to poach customers. Then, last month, ROI countersued Amy and Danny Wirth.
“(Lisa) Wirth and David Maxe” — ROI’s other co-founder — “have the legal right to compete with Sunward in the steel building manufacturer industry,” they wrote. “Ms. Wirth and Mr. Maxe have the legal right to solicit Sunward’s customers and do business with those customers.
“Neither Ms. Wirth nor Mr. Maxe took any documentation containing confidential or trade secret information from Sunward when they left their employment” in 2024, those two say.
Last summer, Amy and Danny Wirth teamed up to hurt their sister’s new company, according to Lisa Wirth. They reportedly demanded that the CEO of a sheet metal supplier stop working with ROI and turn over a list of ROI’s customers, and issued an ultimatum to a second supplier that it either stop working with ROI or lose one of its largest customers: Danny Wirth’s firm.
“Whirlwind Steel Buildings refused to do business with ROI after Danny Wirth and Amy Wirth delivered these threats,” according to the countersuit that ROI filed Feb. 19.
Lisa Wirth’s company is suing her siblings for intentional interference with prospective business relationships. Its lawyer is Michele Choe with Dinsmore in Denver.
“Rather than take responsibility for its misconduct, ROI has elected to unnecessarily expand this dispute with litigation tactics such as this,” says Danny Wirth’s lawyer, Chris Carrington.
“That is unfortunate. My client denies the allegations, has nothing to hide, and, in fact, looks forward to commencing discovery and getting the case to a decision on the merits as soon as possible,” according to Carrington, with the Richards Carrington firm in Denver.
Sunward’s lawyers, Merc Pittinos and Tanya Sevy with Fennemore, declined to comment.
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