New Vine’s Meltdown: Summary of Act One, Still Waiting For Godot

The sudden collapse and melt-down of direct shipping star New Vine Logistics precipitated a frantic, week-long struggle to find a way to get the company functioning well enough to resume operations for the winery customers who had not already fled the ruins.

With most of the 120-person workforce abruptly terminated on Friday, May 29 and winery inventory locked down, investors chalked up a series of speed-dating sessions with potential suitors and finally reached a non-solution to have Inertia Beverage Group become New Vine’s major creditor with the rights to some vague solution to come.

Numerous readers have emailed Wine Industry Insight and requested a summary of all its news coverage of the New Vine meltdown over the past week. While WII is still working on several articles about the situation, the following is a round-up of the past week, starting with the most recent article.

From all indications, this summary is of the first act only.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2009

LIMBO! New Vine’s Interim Funding From IBG Raises More Questions Than Answers

Dante’s first circle of Hell has a special place called limbo which resembles an eternal dentist’s waiting room where you sit forever and never actually get your cavities filled.

Much the same could be said of the vague, deal-in-progress hammered out Thursday afternoon between New Vine …

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009

Inertia Beverage Group Acquires/Merges With New Vine

Inertia Beverage Group has emerged the winner in the financial rugby scrum to snag the remains of New Vine Logistics.

Observers said that IBG laid a winning body check on front-runner WTN Services Thursday when Bob Ackerman, Managing Director and Founder of …

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2009

STILL UNDEAD: Employees Fume, Customers Fret As New Vine Bazaar Grinds On

While hopes had been high that New Vine’s investors would quickly find a suitable buyer, those hoped dimmed as the night wore on.

The process frustrated everyone involved, even as progress had been made by whittling down the number of  bidders for New Vine’s bones from yesterday’s 20+ to a more realistic half dozen or so.

Among the frustrated late Wednesday night …

Napa Valley Vintners Issues Bulletin Regarding New Vine Inventory Removal

Subject:

Inventory Removal from New Vine Logistics …

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2009

UNDEAD! Suitors Sparring Over New Vine’s Bones

People with a lot of money rarely scurry as fast as the 20+ companies and other parties now clutching for a piece of New Vine’s body.

But unaccustomed as they might be, the tire-kicking and deal-floating have been described by several participants as “a frantic rush to own the body before the last breath has been drawn.”

One person involved in the …

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009

DEAD! – New Vine Withers After Amazon Bolts & Investors Pull Plug

New Vine Logistics slammed the doors and headed for the hills on May 30, after impatient investors pulled the plug following the direct-shipping company’s mounting losses.
New Vine touted itself as the solution to allowing wineries to sell and ship wine to consumers while complying with the crazy quilt of laws that varied from state to  …