Wine Industry Insight has reported that Crushpad, the DIY winemaking service that enabled budding wine enthusiasts to make their own vino is closing its doors.
Wine Industry Insight goes on to state that several reliable sources confirm that Crushpad was urgently seeking $500,000 last week in last-ditch hopes to stay afloat after Bill Foley (the company’s main investor) decided he would no longer underwrite any more of the operation’s mounting losses.
Wine Industry Insight also went so far as to reach out for Crushpad CEO Peter Ekman, who stated in an email: “Like a lot of winery operations, we have been faced with some need for restructuring which is now almost complete. Since I can’t stop you from writing an article, I can only ask and hope you will reflect the optimism for the future our clients, shareholders and employees share about our business.”
Click here for the full article.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t turn out to be true (although WII is normally spot-on with their facts).
Heart Smart wine – one of my past featured wine brands that donates part of their proceeds to charitable causes – uses/used Crushpad for their winemaking purposes. Fingers crossed that Crushpad find a buyer/investor sharpish! Anyone out there have any spare cash…?