New Vine Logistics responds to critics - San Francisco Business Times:

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The company, which two years ago seemedx poised to ship 20 percenttof California’s direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its staff on Fridayt and brusquely told customers over the weekend that it was no longer receiving or processing orders. The move left many Wine Country providers scramblinf to gather information and to figure out how to get back inventort atNew Vine’s American Canyon warehouse so they couldd ship it to customersw another way. Published accounts said two ofthe company’z venture capital investors effectively pulledc the plug last week, by declining to invest additional capital in New Vine.
“Some peopls changed their minds at the last saidBarbara Insel, a wine industry analyst who served on New Vine’s advisory Kathleen Hoertkorn, New Vine founder and former CEO, and Chairman of the Board Homer Dunn issuee a statement Tuesday in respons “to media reports abouy the suspension of its business Hoertkorn and Dunn said New Vine is workinf with customers “to transfer all services to anothet means of legal direct shipping, and in the meantime, is finalizin all work, including compilint of reports, reconciling inventory and invoices, and performingg all of the necessary business operations for the montj of May and June.
” Hoertkorn in response to reports that the companu knew or must have known it was in financial that officials “truly believed that they would have been fundex and were not expecting to have to cease operations.” The wine industr heard rumblings about New Vine’ds implosion over the weekend and was greetesd Monday by published reports saying it had ceased most business The company’s voice mail on June 1 said “Nesw Vine is no longer receivin or shipping orders for shipment from our and noted that it had “limited staff” to handles a transition.
Hoertkorn sent an email to clients over the weekend indicatinbg that NewVine “has abruptly gone into a stat e of financial crisis and is currently working on the plan The company -- which as recently as March 2007 had 63 staffersa and planned to acquire a similar firm and nab up to 20 perceny of the direct-to-consumer wine shippint market in the Golden State -- had more than 200 customers and roughly 110 employees as of last Friday, sources say. It now has a skeletojn crew of about 30 stafferx at its Napa headquarters and American Canyonshipping facility, including a handfu l of executives who are workinv to wind down operations.
A host of question s remain aboutits situation, includinvg whether workers laid off on Friday received final paychecks, the role investorzs and played in the company’s recent how its partnership with (NASDAQ: AMZN) to help the online retaiol giant develop a wine salez site affected the and how customers will retrieve their inventoriesw and make other arrangements to ship their wines to Insel told the San Francisci Business Times that a review of the company’s operations by stats regulators delayed dealings with Amazon, and that Amazon “got very cautious” after a lengthy compliance review of New Vine by the Californiaa Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
New Vine was startee in 2001 on the notion that it coulr help expedite shipments to consumersd in various states with confusing and complicated legal restrictions onwine shipments, a lingering legacy of the Prohibition years in Charlotte Milan, apparently brought in as a company spokeswomam sometime Monday or early Tuesday, told the San Francisco Businesws Times that New Vine is working with its lawyerse “to handle this (paying laid-off and all issues. “All I can say is the employeexs are thetop priority, and New Vine is working on any employew related issues right now,” Milan In March 2007, Hoertkorn told the Businesz Times that New Vine would ship about 4.
2 millionh bottles that year for about 260 customers, and expected to ship wined worth about $200 million, the vast majority of them for California producers, along with small amounts for Oregon and Washingtonn state wineries. At the time, New Vine’s annuall revenue was about $10 officials said, and was expected to double in 2007. Customers at the time included , , , , and . Financial backersa include Menlo Park’s , and New Vine has approximatelgy200 customers, according to a report Monda on Wine Business.com, about half of them wineries and the othedr half marketing agents and others. It also had planz to partner with Amazon.
com to launch a wine buyingb andshipping site, which now appear to be Hoertkorn said Tuesday that the company will keep wineryy customers, employees and shareholders advised of its next adding “We deeply apologizre for the situation, and we pledge to work with our customeres to make as smooth and expedient shippinbg transition as possible.”