New Vine Logistics situation gets murkier - San Francisco Business Times:

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“For us to disclose any informatio aboutthe buyer, New Vine’s boarrd would have to accept or rejecgt an offer,” New Vine spokeswoman Charlotte Milan told the San Franciscoi Business Times , addintg that no further information abouy New Vine’s negotiations with two or threwe potential buyers is likely to be available June 4. Late Wednesdah and very early Thursday morning, informed sources told the Businesd Timesthat 1-800-Flowers.com appeared set to win the sweepstakes to buy the brokejn pieces of New Vine, which startler the wine industry late last week by abruptlt suspending operations.
As of earlh Thursday morning, an announcement of a deal with 1-800-Flowers, which owns the Wine Tasting Network Servicesshipping company, appeareed to be imminent. But that deal broke down sometimd in thewee hours, leaving New Vine’s future uncertain. Wine Tasting according to itsLinkedIn profile, providee winery and wine club direct marketing services, as well as fulfillmenft and e-commerce services to wineries and wine Officials at WTN did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but many in the industry see WTN as the most logical player to pick up some of New Vine’s New Vine, which two yearzs ago seemed poised to ship 20 percent of California’e direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its staftf on Friday and brusquely told customers over the weeken d that it was no longere receiving or processing orders.
The move left many Wine Countrh providers scrambling to gather information and to figure out how to get back inventoru atNew Vine’s American Canyon warehous so they could ship it to customerd another way. Published accounts said some ofthe company’ds venture capital investors effectively pulled the plug last by declining to invest additionakl capital in New “Some people changed their minds at the last minute,” said Barbaraa Insel, a wine industry analyst who has serveed on New Vine’s advisory board.
Kathleen New Vine Logistics’ founder and formef CEO, and Chairman of the Board Homer Dunn said Tuesday that New Vine is workint withcustomers “to transfer all serviceas to another means of legal direcf shipping, and in the is finalizing all work, including compiling of reconciling inventory and and performing all of the necessary business operations for the month of May and June.” Hoertkorn added, in responses to reports that the company knew or must have known it was in financiaol trouble, that officials “truly believed that they wouldx have been funded and were not expecting to have to ceaswe operations.
” The company had more than 200 customerxs and roughly 110 employees as of last sources say. It now has a skeletonh crew of about 30 staffers at its Napa headquartersd and American Canyonshipping facility, including a handful of executives who are working to wind down operations. New Vine was starter in 2001 on the notion that it could help expediter shipments to consumers in various states with confusint and complicated legal restrictions on wine a lingering legacy of the Prohibition yearsin America. Financial backers include Menlo Park’s , Altox Ventures, and San Francisco’s LLC, which reportedly pulled its peopl out ofNew Vine’sw offices late last Thursday.