NAPA -- Wine direct sales and fulfillment provider WineDirect today said it acquired a Canadian company from which it has been licensing website, e-commerce and social networking technology for the past two years.
WineDirect, formerly known as IBG, acquired Vin65 of Abbotsford, British Columbia, for an undisclosed sum. Vin65 has been hosting all WineDirect's e-commerce customers since the licensing agreement was signed in June 2010.
The acquisition gives WineDirect access to Vin65's wine producer and retailer customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.
Vin65 founder Andrew Kamphuis is joining WineDirect to oversee e-commerce.
"Yes, there have been some issues in the past with WineDirect, but the last couple of years the new management (under Joe Waechter's direction) has done a good job of turning that around," wrote Mr. Kamphuis in a post on his company's website explaining the sale.
IBG, formerly known as Inertia Beverage Group, changed its name to WineDirect after acquiring the assets of Napa-based New Vine and a wine telemarketing company. In September, WineDirect acquired WTN Services from 1-800-Flowers.
Vin65 has grown to manage services for more than 700 wine-related websites over the past four years. Mr. Kamphuis told customers that their accounts will still be free to use existing fulfillment services such as Napa-based Amedeo Wines, American Canyon-based Copper Peak Logistics, Windsor-based Pack N' Ship Direct, Sonoma-based Wineshipping and software providers such as Boulder, Colo.-based ShipCompliant, Napa Valley POS, Fremont-based Oztera Technology Group, Vintegrate by Santa Rosa-based KLH Consulting and Napa-based Elypsis.
