Drinks team suspended over stripper photos

Senior salesmen from a major US drinks distributor have been suspended after sending lewd strip club images to a Laurent Perrier executive.

Photo credit: Facebook

Southern Wine & Spirits’ sales director Joseph Eger and district manager Dimitrios Kaloudis hit the front page of the New York Post earlier this month in a photo showing them pour $1,000-worth of Laurent Perrier rosé into an ice bucket at The Hustler Club while Eger is groped by a stripper.

The photo was sent to Sabine Latapie, New York State manager for Laurent Perrier’s US arm, who suggested that it came as retaliation for a decision to find a new distributor for the Champagne house.

As reported by Page Six, Southern Wine & Spirits has now suspended “several sales management employees” while it carries out an investigation into the “disturbing allegations.”

Following the incident, Latapie reported it on Facebook, commenting: “This behavior is precisely why we are terminating our relationship with Southern New York.” She also described the act as “sexual harassment, but I won’t even go there.”

In response to news that the employees had been suspended, Laurent Perrier’s US president Michelle DeFeo told Page Six: “We are pleased that SWS is taking the incident involving the individuals in these photos as seriously as we are,” adding: “This type of conduct should not be tolerated in the wine industry nor any other.”