Forwarding Co. by Bermuda Forwarders last week. Many were not happy.

But Bermuda Forwarders president, and sole proprietor, Toby Kempe, said about 13 of the 25 Globe staff have joined his firm.

That left close to a dozen former Globe employees this week looking for work, after being surprised by the buy-out.

The deal was brokered by the Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Ltd. after their senior manager of corporate finance, Bruce Sharpe, approached the two firms last June.

For weeks before the announcement, rumours had circulated that a sale, in varying degrees of completion, was being affected for Globe's business. Street sources estimated the sale price for Globe at around $2 million, although some believe the figure to be too high in an actual valuation of Globe's assets.

The parties have refused to comment on price.

But if some "in-the-know'' Bermudians were expecting an official announcement, they didn't include most of the 25 staff at Globe Forwarders.

One employee, receiving the letter of termination which gave just three days notice, was angry.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette on the condition of anonymity, the employee complained: "They told us on Tuesday that we were losing our jobs and had to finish up by Friday. That was unfair.'' Ex-employees bitter about merger of two companies "Everybody feels that way. People are not happy, but what can you do? You work hard for a company and then you get this. They should have given us at least some notice so that we could look for alternative employment.'' But Globe partner and general manager, Ian Mann, said, "In this circumstance, there are always consequences from a competitive point of view. Circumstances are such in this economy where you have to make economic decisions.

"At the end of the day, everyone has been given more than adequate termination pay. There was no way I could go through this and announce to everybody what is happening before I had a deal. And once we had the deal, everyone was told.

"But the rumours had been out in the market for about a month and were rising to a huge crescendo. So anyone who thought that this was a real surprise couldn't have been listening for a month.'' But some paying customers were also more than a little unsettled. A knowledgeable source pointed out, "Some of the customers felt left out in the cold by the deal. For some it was a move in which they did not wish to participate in, and some probably would opt for smaller firms.

"Change is often a good thing, though, and a lot of the staff who were made redundant must have drawn pretty good severance pay. It is better they came away with some money, than if the company simply closed its doors and shut down.'' Mr. Mann and Niels R. Jorgensen each owned 20 percent of Globe before the sale and both are expected to spend up to the next year working as consultants for Bermuda Forwarders.

The majority owner and founder, H. Ulrich Christensen, began the business when he took over a truck from his sister and brother-in-law in 1954. About a year later, he went into the forwarding business and Globe Forwarding Co. was born.

He was one of the pioneers of container hauling.

Although he was a 60 percent shareholder in Globe, Mr. Christensen, 82, has not been active in the business since suffering a stroke three years ago.

The loss of the military bases was a huge blow to both firms. Mr. Christensen said at one point, the bases provided half of Globe's business, but with the bases departure, less staff were needed, resulting in recent cuts.

He said, "The container trucking business is not part of the sale to Bermuda Forwarders, but we have an agreement with them to be on a non-competitive basis. The trucks we still have in the yard may be sold or something else will have to be worked out.'' Globe had much more of a container trucking business than their former competitor. But there was some question as to whether Globe's customers, and their overseas freight agents, would sign up with Bermuda Forwarders. The freight agents work on behalf of importers to load and consolidate container loads of goods.

Mr. Kempe said, "Pan Atlantic (operating out of New Jersey) decided to move to someone else. They thought the customers were their own, but a large number of the customers saw themselves as Globe customers and are coming across in the deal. A lot of the customers we are still talking to, an ongoing process that will last several weeks.'' Mr. Kempe said, "We are picking up some business and getting back into the heavy hauling, which we let go down over the years, through concentrating on the base business.'' But there were clear indications of an increase in business for small and middle sized firms involved in freight transportation, and industry sources said it is business originally held by Globe.

With Bermuda Forwarders obtaining the Globe warehouse and a parcel of land, Mr. Christensen said he is retaining an adjoining piece of property through other companies he operates.

Mr. Mann said, "The equipment that is being retained by the company is going to be run jointly. The assets, heavy equipment, being held by Globe are going to be run by Bermuda Forwarders for a period of time.'' Said Mr. Kempe, "Both of us had extra trucks from when the bases left at the end of 1995. We will have to deal with them and look at some excess heavy equipment as well.''