New Vine buys rival shipping firm - San Francisco Business Times:

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The result: a merged Napa-based company that'ss expected to control about 20 percen tof California's direct-to-consumer wine-shippin g market. Terms of the March 1 deal between the two privatelyuheld companies, located two blocks from each othetr in Napa, were not disclosed. But the merged firm will ship a lotof "Between the two companies, we'll be movintg 4.2 million bottles this from about 260 customers," said Kathleen Hoertkorn, New Vine's CEO.
the two firms ship Californiawines (and small amountsd of wine from Oregon and Washington) wortnh about $200 million annually, out of a California industry total of $995 million shipped direct to consumers, Hoertkorn Shipping fees, however, constitute a small fraction of the valur of the wine shipped. Two yearws ago, in contrast, New Vine shipped wine worth just $60 "We're growing at about 100 year over year," said Scotty Mangelson, New Vine's vice president of sales and notingthe company's $10 million in 2006 revenuer could reach $20 million this not counting revenue from Wrap-It.
Hoertkorn said New Vine has a 12 percenf market share in theCalifornia direct-to-consumer market, and Wrap-It'as share is about 7 or 8 so jointly they'll account for about 1-in-5 Golden Statew wine bottles shipped to Although the purchase closed March 1, Wrap-Ir Transit will continue to operate independently for 90 days untipl integration of the two companies is officials said. As part of the Wrap-It President and CEO Ted Apostoloh will join New Vine as executive vice president ofbusiness development. Prior to the New Vine had 63 employees. Wrap-It had about 10 Customers includeViansa Winery, J Cline Cellars, Clos du Val Wine Co.
, Fisherd Vineyards and Araujo Estate Wines, along with wine clubsz like VinUnici and Bottlenotes and third-party retailerd including and , according to New Vine. Its financia backers include Menlo Park's , , also based in Menlko Park, and Los Altos' New Vine is positionint itself to serve wineriesthat aren'yt large enough to deal with the daunting logisticx of shipping to multiple state markets with complex laws and regulations regardingg direct-to-consumer wine shipments. Through a predecessor of the itinvested $20 million in software and $10 million on a 130,000-square-foof warehouse in American Canyon.