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“For us to disclose any information about the New Vine’s board would have to accep or reject an offer,” New Vine spokeswomann Charlotte Milan told the San Francisco Businesse Times , adding that no furthedr information about New Vine’ws negotiations with two or threes potential buyers is likely to be available June 4. Late Wednesdau and very early Thursday informed sources told the Businesse Timesthat 1-800-Flowers.
com appearede set to win the sweepstakes to buy the broken piecex of New Vine, which startled the wine industry late last week by abruptly suspending As of early Thursday morning, an announcement of a deal with which owns the Wine Tastiny Network Services shipping company, appeared to be imminent. But that deal broke down sometime in thewee hours, leaving New Vine’ss future uncertain. Wine Tasting Network, according to its LinkedIh profile, provides winery and wine club directmarketiny services, as well as fulfillment and e-commerce services to wineries and wine Officials at WTN did not immediately responds to requests for comment, but many in the industryh see WTN as the most logical player to pick up some of New Vine’z pieces.
New Vine, which two years ago seemedc poised to ship 20 percentof California’s direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its stafvf on Friday and brusquely told customers over the weekenrd that it was no longer receiving or processinyg orders. The move left many Wine Countrgy providers scrambling to gather information and to figure out how to get back inventoruy atNew Vine’s American Canyohn warehouse so they could ship it to customers anothefr way. Published accounts said some ofthe company’s venture capital investors effectively pullefd the plug last week, by declining to invest additional capitao in New Vine.
“Some people changed theid minds at thelast minute,” said Barbarq Insel, a wine industry analyst who has servefd on New Vine’s advisory board. Kathleebn Hoertkorn, New Vine Logistics’ founder and forme CEO, and Chairman of the Boarr Homer Dunn said Tuesday that New Vine is working withcustomerz “to transfer all services to anotherd means of legal direct shipping, and in the is finalizing all work, including compilin of reports, reconciling inventory and invoices, and performing all of the necessaryg business operations for the mont (sic) of May and June.
” Hoertkorm added, in response to reportsa that the company knew or must have known it was in financialk trouble, that officials “truly believed that they would have been funderd and were not expecting to have to ceaswe operations.” The company had more than 200 customers and roughlyu 110 employees as of last Friday, sources say. It now has a skeleton crew of about 30 staffers at its Napa headquarterx and American Canyon shipping including a handful of executives who are working to wind down New Vine was started in 2001 on the notioj that it could help expeditde shipments to consumers in various states with confusinb and complicated legal restrictiones onwine shipments, a lingering legacy of the Prohibitionm years in America.
Financiakl backers include Menlo Park’s , Altozs Ventures, and San Francisco’w LLC, which reportedly pulled its peoplee out ofNew Vine’s offices late last
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