Inertia Beverage Group Raises $14MM in New Capital
COMPANY NEWS RELEASE: 40 New Customers In Past 90 Days, Dave Manougian, Former Golf Channel CEO, E& J Gallo Winery and Nike Executive Joins As Chairman of the Board
NAPA, December 17, 2009 – Inertia Beverage Group (IBG) today announced it has secured $14 million in new capital, from existing investors Allegis Capital and Sid R. Bass Associates, and new investors, including PEI Funds, to support the vision of IBG to deliver a fully integrated, comprehensive solution for the direct-to-market wine industry. The funding will be used to further strengthen IBG’s core services of fulfillment, winery-direct ecommerce and compliance.
“IBG’s delivery of a complete, integrated platform to support direct marketing and sales efforts comes at a critical time for the wine industry. The need to expand marketing reach, lower costs and complexity, and improve margins is essential for wineries confronting an increasingly challenging market environment. With this financing, IBG has the resources necessary to deliver its unique platform to its winery clients, while providing essential customer support,” said Robert Ackerman, Managing Director & Founder of Allegis Capital.
“We now have access to all of the necessary resources to execute our vision of providing industry leading capabilities and unmatched service to our customers seeking to reach trade and consumer markets directly,” said Ted Jansen, President and CEO of IBG. “Our team has really pulled together over the past few months to integrate our eCommerce, fulfillment and compliance operations; our customers are now benefitting from capabilities no other company in the industry can match.”
− A New IBG Emerges −
The newly raised capital comes on the heels of IBG’s now-completed integration of New Vine fulfillment assets, acquired this past July. IBG now has two primary locations, including its Napa Valley headquarters and a 136,000 square foot state-of-the-art fulfillment center in American Canyon. The integration of operations has resulted in the elimination of redundant roles and significant cost savings, further allowing IBG to invest its resources in its core services on behalf of its growing client base.
In the past 90 days, IBG added 40 new customers with a total customer count now of more than 350. One of these new customers, Carol Reber, Vice President of Marketing of 585 Wine Partners said, “We are so pleased by the service we get from IBG’s Account Management team that we are consolidating all of our direct services with IBG. We think it will be great to know that the team that demonstrates such care and passion for our eCommerce business will now be looking after us for fulfillment too.”
IBG’s Client Service division is fully trained to handle the fulfillment needs of its clients, and is now actively servicing IBG clients across all services, providing wineries with a single account management contact for all of their direct needs.
−Dave Manougian joins IBG as Chairman of the Board −
IBG also announced today that the former CEO of The Golf Channel, Dave Manougian will be joining the organization as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Manougian has decades of senior management experience in consumer marketing and sales with Fortune 500 companies including E & J Gallo Winery, Nike and Comcast, which owns the Golf Channel.
About Inertia Beverage Group
Founded in 2002, Inertia Beverage Group is the leading provider of direct sales technology and services to the wine industry. As the wine industry’s only fully integrated marketplace solution, IBG provides wineries, retailers and wholesalers with eCommerce technology, compliance tools, logistics solutions and state-of-the-art shipping services that give them access to new markets, consumers and products. IBG is headquartered in Napa Valley. For more information, visit www.inertiabev.com.
About Allegis Capital
Allegis is a seed and early stage venture capital firm focused on the digital economy. The venture firm has five funds and invested in more than 70 companies including Inertia Beverage Group, Ironport Systems, RIBBIT, Rent.com, Shopzilla, CompareNet and StepUp Commerce. Based in Palo Alto, California, Allegis has assets under management of $500M. For more information, visit www.allegiscapital.com.
About Sid R. Bass Associates
Sid R. Bass Associates is a venture capital and value added investor, providing capital and access to resources and industry contacts to high growth early-stage and late-stage companies. With $300 million in committed capital, the firm focuses its investments in the software, communications, wireless, security, storage, network infrastructure, media, and consumer and business services sectors. With a long term horizon, the firm partners with seasoned entrepreneurs to grow successful growth businesses through all phases of a company’s development.
About PEI Funds
Founded in 1992, PEI is a specialist in small private equity secondary purchases and a primary investor in venture capital, growth equity and buyout funds. PEI is headquartered in New York and has regional partners in Chicago, San Francisco and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.peifunds.com.
Contact:
Ted Jansen, Inertia Beverage Group
707.603.4042
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About The Editor
WII Editor Lewis Perdue
is a former Washington, D.C. investigative reporter and has written 20 published books. He founded Wine Business Insider in 1991 followed three years later by Wine Business Monthly. Both were sold in 1997, but remain the dominant trade publications for the North American wine business. In 1997 he became a correspondent for CBS Marketwatch and a columnist for The Street.Com. Later, he worked as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal Online before founding an Internet payments company which went public. He has also been a negociant and a wine importer/distributor. Click here for more on Lew.
So… before I get too excited here…
How much of that $14M went to pay for loans involved in the NVL acquisition?
Also, on adding 40 customers in the past 90 days… does that mean NVL had less than 40 unique customers prior to being acquired by Inertia? Makes that deal seem worse than it sounded.
This also meant 16 layoffs a WEEK before Christmas. I smell a poison pill and zero morale.
So who are these investors that keep dumping millions of dollars into a bottomless pit? We all saw IBG’s business plan for 2010/2011 and how much of a pipe dream it was. With more money being poured into it, how the heck are they going to pay this all back? Even with their new marketing plan of luring you in with shipping discounts to save a couple grand/yr for your customers (thanks), but before you know it, you are paying $20K/yr+ for outdated software. Smells like a digital version of the shell and nut game to me.