New Vine Logistics situation gets murkier - Denver Business Journal:

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“For us to disclose any information about the New Vine’s board would have to accept or reject an New Vine spokeswoman Charlotte Milan told the San Francisco Businesds Times , adding that no further informationm about New Vine’s negotiations with two or threr potential buyers is likely to be available June 4. Late Wednesdayy and very earlyThursday morning, informed sourcesa told the Business Times that 1-800-Flowers.com appearexd set to win the sweepstakex to buy the broken pieces of New which startled the wine industry late last week by abruptlt suspending operations.
As of early Thursdat morning, an announcement of a deal with 1-800-Flowers, whichn owns the Wine Tasting Network Serviceshipping company, appeared to be But that deal broke down sometime in the wee hours, leavingt New Vine’s future uncertain. Wine Tasting according to its LinkedIn provides winery and wine club directmarketing services, as well as fulfillment and e-commerc services to wineries and wine retailers.
Officials at WTN did not immediatelh respond to requestsfor comment, but many in the industrty see WTN as the most logical playeer to pick up some of New Vine’s New Vine, which two years ago seemedx poised to ship 20 percent of California’se direct-to-consumer wine market, laid off much of its staff on Fridaty and brusquely told customers over the weekenxd that it was no longer receiving or processing The move left many Wine Countru providers scrambling to gather information and to figure out how to get back inventort at New Vine’s American Canyon warehouse so they could ship it to customerws another way.
Published accounts said some ofthe company’s venturwe capital investors effectively pulled the plug last week, by declining to inves t additional capital in New Vine. “Some peoplwe changed their minds at thelast minute,” said Barbara a wine industry analyst who has served on New Vine’es advisory board. Kathleen Hoertkorn, New Vine founder and former CEO, and Chairman of the Boar d Homer Dunn said Tuesday that New Vine is workingg withcustomers “to transfer all services to anothe means of legal direct shipping, and in the is finalizing all including compiling of reports, reconcilinv inventory and invoices, and performing all of the necessary businesx operations for the month of May and June.
” Hoertkorn in response to reports that the companh knew or must have known it was in financia trouble, that officials “truly believed that they would have been funded and were not expectinf to have to ceas operations.” The company had more than 200 customers and roughlyg 110 employees as of last Friday, sources say. It now has a skeletonj crew of about 30 staffers at its Napa headquarters and Americanj Canyonshipping facility, including a handfu of executives who are working to wind down operations.
New Vine was startede in 2001 on the notion that it coulrd help expedite shipments to consumers in various states with confusing and complicatedr legal restrictions onwine shipments, a lingering legacy of the Prohibition years in Financial backers include Menlo Park’s , Altos and San Francisco’s LLC, which reportedly pulled its people out of New Vine’s offices late last Thursday.