Source: Decanter
by Richard Woodard
Monday 13 August 2012
The new
owners of the assets of beleaguered custom winemaking company Crushpad are on
the hunt for new facilities as they try to rebuild trust in the troubled
business.
Using two
newly created companies, Structural Solutions and Aspect 2, private equity
business Castlegate Capital Advisors bought Crushpad's assets at public auction
for just over US$650,000 - the same amount as the company debt previously
acquired by Castlegate.
But
clients of the custom winemaking business are still not sure what will happen to
wine they have in barrel or bottle with Crushpad, when they will be able to
secure their wine and how much it will cost to do so.
In an
email to members sent following the sale, Crushpad vice president Steve Ryan -
previously the company's operations director - said the business faced 'a very
complicated situation involving multiple legal entities', as well as numerous
creditors and 'justifiably upset' customers.
He said
the first task was to settle monies owed to Groskopf, the warehousing business
storing the wines, so that normal operations could be
resumed.
The new
company would like to finish and bottle members' maturing wine, Ryan added, but
there would be 'a cost' for this, and the business's pricing model would have to
change to make it sustainable and able to offer the same
services.
'We are
building a new company focused on renewing the concept of making great wine for
those without a winery of their own, or wishing to build a brand commercially,'
Ryan wrote.
'To do
this, we will leverage the lessons learned by our predecessors. Today we face a
number of challenges in resurrecting the company and rebuilding your
trust.'
No comments:
Post a Comment