Gates liquor dealer Eber Bros. sold

Eber Bros., the Gates-based liquor distributor, is being acquired by Southern Wine & Spirits of New York Inc.

[Unknown]

How many employees? I am sure that there are more than 100 families that will be disrupted by this sale, probably closer to 500.

[unknown2]

Many of the people at Eber Bros. will probably go on to join Southern Wine and Spirits. It is not 500 families that will be affected by any means.

[No clue]

About 1000 jobs will be lost with this sale. Souther ships from Cuse only for upstate N.Y. From the top to the bottom Southern will not take more than a handfull of people. EBER SCREWED HIS PEOPLE BAD!!!

[digruntled employee]

oh yeah! everyone but Lester Eber himself is screwed. Southern ships only out of Syracuse, where there is no Eber house.The warehoue men and office personal in Rochester,Albany and Portchester will all be looking for work. Lester did nothing to protect his employees.He only worried about how much money he could put in his own pocket. I hope he sleeps well in his silk pajamas!!!!

[employee-mixed feelings]

The original article in the Rochester newspaper is pretty lame - certainly more than 100 employees are affected (closer to 600). Alot of us will miss the people - but not the work!

[loyalty gets you nowhere]

SWS comes to town, we all get asked to be loyal to Lester and remain, that he will "fight the fight" and take care of all of us that remain. He sues SWS, now he is in "bed" with them, and all the loyalists are out of a job... unless of course you intend on moving...Absolutely no consideration for those that were close to retirement, no discussion of severence, not even a firm "last day" date. "Everyone will have the opportunity to re-apply for their position, and SWS needs us, a lot of you WILL have positions with SWS, even my own children will have to apply" said Lester in his speech across the state to all of his blind-sided employees. But rumor has it that his children have already secured positions, imagine that!!
Nothing against SWS, business is business, but Lester could have handled this grossly differently... to take into consideration how many lives he will be destroying, forever. We are all a family, and this industry will never be the same.
again, loyalty gets you nowhere...

[Lester Eber]

I'm rich Bee-otch!

[Frustrated supplier]

Lester expressed to me that everything was fine and Eber was here to stay. One week later he announces the sale to Southern. These deals take time to happen.No loyalty whatsoever. I have spoken to numerous people in his organization who will be out of work shortly.No help in getting them jobs,no nothing.Lester said one week before the sale,'' stay the course everything will be just fine'' His credibility is gone, he has helped himself while hurting so many people.

[Lester sws wants me Eber]

Let's get it together, we have at least a month to go, then who knows where we will all be. Well everyone knows where I will be, I took a job making millions a year and screwed all of you. Say what you want about me, I am worth millions and all of those who were loyal to me are worth nothing. I will not loose sleep over the people I burried

[Censored]

Don't miss the upcoming columns coming up in the Daily News exposing Lester and Southern.

[Joe]

Hey Les, does Southern observe Yom Kippur??

[Keep Me Going]

Keep this going. Pass on the link and info to everyone who wants to speak their mind about how we all got screwed. Sales reps, customer service, warehouse workers, cleaners,store owners, suppliers, GTS workers, anyone........

[Frank Ryan]

All I can say is HA!

NDC RULEZ!

[Lester]

I am going to sue this Website! I am going to sue all these people, cause this is what I do! Do! Do! Do!

[Stephen Lewin]

Lester,

What about me? I messed up that whole Cliquot thing but give me a 2nd chance please?

[loyalty gets you nowhere]

"I can't say my name but David and Wendy really do have to apply".
In purely my opinion, I feel that it is amazing that their completed applications were reviewed and they were interviewed before ANY jobs were even posted...

And what about our loyal customers and suppliers... Lester stated, "They have no choice now, what else are they going to do?" Nice, real nice...

[Tony Bush]

Whew!

Looks like I got out just in time.

[unknown]

I love lester

[back door deal]

Most of us here at Eber live in the real world and know that in private industry mergers and buy-outs sometimes are the only option. I had heard for years that Lester was a good man and loyal to his employees. That statement could be no further from the truth. The truth is - this was a closed door -back room deal - to settle the lawsuits against Southern and was pushed through with out any plans for the transition in order to prevent NDC from exercising their right of first refusal as Bacardi was preparing to announce their departure from Eber. It has become blatantly obvious that Lester was loyal to no one in this deal - except himself. If he truely was loyal to his employees, he could have made some kind of arrangements with Southern to keep as many jobs as possible. And at very least offered his employees some kind of extension of benefits and compensation - other than unemployment.

[The REAL Lester Eber]

I just want to clear up a few things, I did fuck my employees over, they will most likly not have jobs, i will always be rich, and loyal dosn't mean shit. As for my son, he will be getting his $20K grand, i did just buy him a new mercades, and he does have a job. why i didn't offer some kind of extension of benefits or compensaition to the employees i had is because it would have cost me to much, so Unemployment it is! any other questions just ask.