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Million Dollar Bonus Payout To Employees Of LiDestri Food and Drink

Stefani, Giovanni and John C. LiDestri
Stefani, Giovanni and John C. LiDestri

A local food processing company continues to diversify its product line, while also going through a management transition.

This is a big week for LiDestri Food and Drink.  For one thing, that's a new name for the Rochester based business. Stefani LiDestri says they came up with that name to highlight the fact that they are more than just sauce and salsa, two of the products that continue to be core businesses for the company. 

“A lot of folks are really paying attention to lifestyle at this point, so going out to eat, we felt like was represented in the name as well, LiDestri Food and Drink and the value and quality that everybody gets in our products.” LiDestri also unveiled a newwebsiteto go along with the re-branding.

LiDestri does contract manufacturing and also develops its own products, and they began branching out to include beverages several years ago. Stefani LiDestri and her brother John LiDestri officially take over as co-presidents this week. CEO Giovanni LiDestri keeps that title, but is turning more of the day to day operations over to his children.

He also announced this week that the company will give out bonuses  to employees, $150  for each year of service, a total payout of about a million dollars. LiDestri says he got that idea from Ralph Cantisano, who founded the company in the 1970s and was a mentor of his.

“I’m kind of trying to follow in his footsteps, that’s something that came very naturally for me to do because at the end of the day, as I tried to say in the memo, it’s really all about the people,” LiDestri told WXXI News.

Giovanni Lidestri says he wants to make it clear how valuable his employees are to the success of the company. He says day in and day out, they are really the folks doing all the work.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.