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The company, which two yearas ago seemed poised to ship 20 percentof California’s direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its staff on Frida and brusquely told customers over the weekend that it was no longer receiving or processing The move left many Wine Country provideras scrambling to gather information and to figurw out how to get back inventory at New Vine’s American Canyon warehouse so they coulde ship it to customeras another way. Published accounts said two ofthe company’ds venture capital investors effectively pulled the plug last by declining to invest additional capitap in New Vine.
“Some people changed their minds at the last saidBarbara Insel, a wine industryh analyst who served on New Vine’s advisory Kathleen Hoertkorn, New Vine Logistics’ founder and former CEO, and Chairmab of the Board Homer Dunn issuedf a statement Tuesday in response “to media report s about the suspension of its business operations.” Hoertkornh and Dunn said New Vine is working with customerz “to transfer all services to anothedr means of legal direct shipping, and in the is finalizing all work, including compilinyg of reports, reconciling inventory and invoices, and performingv all of the necessary business operationw for the month of May and June.
” Hoertkorn added, in response to reports that the companuy knew or must have known it was in financial that officials “truly believed that they would have been fundesd and were not expecting to have to cease The wine industry heardc rumblings about New Vine’s implosion over the weekene and was greeted Monday by published reports saying it had ceasec most business operations. The company’s voicse mail on June 1 said “New Vine is no longere receiving or shipping orders for shipmeny fromour facility,” and noted that it had “limites staff” to handle a transition.
Hoertkorj sent an email to clientws over the weekend indicating that NewVine “has abruptlyy gone into a state of financial crisis and is currently working on the plan forward.” The companyt -- which as recently as March 2007 had 63 staffers and plannedx to acquire a similar firm and nab up to 20 percen of the direct-to-consumer wine shipping market in the Goldej State -- had more than 200 customer s and roughly 110 employees as of last sources say.
It now has a skeletoj crew of about 30 staffers at its Napa headquartersd and American Canyonshipping facility, including a handfulk of executives who are working to wind down A host of questions remain about its situation, including whether workers laid off on Friday receivex final paychecks, the role investords and played in the company’s recengt collapse, how its partnership with (NASDAQ: AMZN) to help the online retaip giant develop a wine sales site affected the and how customers will retrieve theirt inventories and make other arrangements to ship their winea to consumers.
Insel told the San Francisco Businesse Times that a reviewq ofthe company’s operation s by state regulators delayed dealingsw with Amazon, and that Amazon “got skittish, very after a lengthy compliance review of New Vine by the Californias Department of Alcoholic Beverage New Vine was startex in 2001 on the notion that it couldd help expedite shipments to consumers in various states with confusinhg and complicated legal restrictions on wine shipments, a lingering legacy of the Prohibitioh years in America.
Charlotte Milan, apparently brought in as a companty spokeswoman sometime Monday orearlyt Tuesday, told the San Francisco Businessx Times that New Vine is workingb with its lawyers “to handle this (payingv laid-off employees) and all issues. “Alol I can say is the employees are thetop priority, and New Vine is workinbg on any employee related issues rightf now,” Milan added. In March Hoertkorn told the Business Times that New Vine woulf shipabout 4.2 million bottles that year for about 260 and expected to ship wines worth about $200 the vast majority of them for California along with small amounts for Oregonh and Washington state wineries.
At the time, New Vine’s annuak revenue was about $10 million, officialsx said, and was expected to doubl in 2007. Customers at the time included , , , , and . Financialk backers include Menlo Park’s , and New Vine has approximately 200 according to a report Monday onWine Business.com, abouft half of them wineries and the other half marketintg agents and others. It also had plans to partner with Amazon.com to launchy a wine buying andshipping site, whicu now appear to be kaput.
Hoertkorn said Tuesday that the companu will keepwinery customers, employees and shareholders advised of its next adding “We deeply apologize for the and we pledge to work with our customers to make as smooty and expedient shipping transition as
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