US wine group Vintage Wine Estates has filed for bankruptcy and is to voluntarily delist its common stock after failing to pay off $60.5m in debt.
The company plans to sell “all or substantially all” of its assets and said it had already received “multiple preliminary indications of interest” from buyers.
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It follows a raft of last-ditch attempts to salvage the publicly listed company’s bank balance – including a round of job cuts in May. Last week, it completed the sale of California-based Cosentino winery and equipment to Gene Wines for $10.5m.
In a stock exchange filing today (24 July), Vintage Wine Estates said: “Over the preceding months, the company experienced negative financial headwinds that severely impacted its liquidity position.
“In response, the company explored several solutions to overcome these challenges, with the monetisation of all assets being the most viable path forward to maximise value.
“The decision to file for the voluntary petition for reorganisation under chapter 11 was made after a careful evaluation of the company’s financial situation and a determination that it is in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.”
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By GlobalDataIt said “commercial operations to continue largely business-as-usual” during the “restructuring” process.
In January, Vintage Wine Estates announced plans to cut its headcount by 15%. That move was expected to help the group achieve savings worth $7.1m. At that time, the group had 545 employees. It had already reduced its workforce by 7% between March and October 2023.
In March, the company attracted bids for its direct-to-consumer unit and some production services operations as it attempted to refocus operations.
At the time, CEO Seth Kaufman, appointed last July, said: “The level of interest in our non-core businesses and other assets has exceeded our expectations in terms of the quantity and quality of discussions. We remain optimistic in our ability to monetise these assets, which will allow us to pay down debt and increase liquidity.”
Vintage Wine Estates was formed in 2007 by Pat Roney, to “bring together” his fine-wine brand Girard and direct-to-consumer brand Windsor Vineyards.
It has since invested in and acquired a raft of US wine businesses, including Girl & Dragon brand owner Canopy Management Wine and Kunde Family Winery owner Kunde Enterprises. Roney served as CEO until February 2023, and now sits on its board of directors.
In the six months to 31 December, Vintage Wine Estates generated net revenue of $141.3m, down from $156.5m a year earlier.
Net losses were $64.4m, an improvement on the losses of $127.6m recorded in the corresponding period the previous year.
The group has said that as of 31 December it had $21.4m in cash and $305m of current debt outstanding.
In the company’s last full financial year, which ran to the end of June 2023, it recorded losses of just short of $189m on net revenue of $189.4m.
