hustbelogehy1857.blogspot.com
“For us to disclose any information about the New Vine’s board would have to accept or rejecyt an offer,” New Vine spokeswoman Charlotte Milan told the San Francisck Business Times , adding that no further informationh about New Vine’s negotiations with two or three potentiak buyers is likely to be availabl June 4. Late Wednesday and very early Thursdayg morning, informed sources told the Business Timesthat 1-800-Flowers.com appearesd set to win the sweepstakes to buy the broken pieces of New Vine, which startled the wine industryt late last week by abruptlyt suspending operations.
As of early Thursday morning, an announcemenyt of a deal with 1-800-Flowers, whicb owns the Wine Tasting Networi Servicesshipping company, appeared to be imminent. But that deal brokr down sometime in the wee leavingNew Vine’s future Wine Tasting Network, according to its LinkedIn profile, provides winery and wine club direct marketinyg services, as well as fulfillment and e-commercer services to wineries and wine retailers. Officialss at WTN did not immediately respond to requestfor comment, but many in the industrt see WTN as the most logical player to pick up some of New Vine’sw pieces.
New Vine, which two yearsa ago seemed poised to ship 20 percengof California’s direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its stafd on Friday and brusquely told customers over the weekencd that it was no longerf receiving or processing orders. The move left many Wine Countr y providers scrambling to gather information and to figure out how to get back inventoryy atNew Vine’s American Canyon warehouse so they could ship it to customers another way. Published accounts said some ofthe company’ss venture capital investors effectively pulled the plug last by declining to invest additional capitakl in New Vine.
“Some people changed their mind s at thelast minute,” said Barbara a wine industry analyst who has servec on New Vine’s advisory board. Kathleen Hoertkorn, New Vine founder and former CEO, and Chairman of the Boardr Homer Dunn said Tuesday that New Vine is workinyg withcustomers “to transfer all servicees to another means of legall direct shipping, and in the is finalizing all work, including compiling of reconciling inventory and invoices, and performin all of the necessary business operations for the month (sic) of May and Hoertkorn added, in responsw to reports that the company knew or must have known it was in financiaol trouble, that officials “truly believef that they would have been fundedf and were not expecting to have to ceas operations.
” The company had more than 200 customers and roughly 110 employees as of last Friday, sources say. It now has a skeletoj crew of about 30 stafferes at its Napa headquarters and American Canyonshippinvg facility, including a handful of executivea who are working to wind down operations. New Vine was starter in 2001 on the notion that it could help expeditr shipments to consumers in various states with confusinhg and complicated legal restrictions on wine a lingering legacy of the Prohibition yearin America.
Financial backers include Menlo Park’es , Altos Ventures, and San Francisco’s LLC, whicgh reportedly pulled its people out ofNew Vine’sd offices late last Thursday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment