The Feldschlösschen Beverages Group is withdrawing from the wine business to concentrate on its core competencies in beer and non-alcoholic beverages.
The reorientation undertaken by the Feldschlösschen Beverages Group, a process announced last August, included a thorough analysis of the company's wine activities, which have been operating under the name DiVino. This revealed that the synergies between the wine and beer businesses, towards which the company had been working since DiVino was founded in 1998, as well as the expected profitability, had not sufficiently materialized. Only a small portion of the customers in the restaurant and retail segments needed to be supplied with both beer and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as wine, all from the same source. Indeed, it was found that restaurant businesses especially preferred to entertain business relationships with several different wine suppliers. For these reasons, the Feldschlösschen Beverages Group has decided to withdraw from the wine business entirely, by the middle of 2002. In the coming weeks, the exclusive vintages and specialties which DiVino carried are to be turned over to interested wine dealers so that the supply of the existing DiVino customers – which in the future is to be independent from the Feldschlösschen Beverages Group – remains assured. They will receive more information about this in the next few days. Ten employees of the Feldschlösschen Beverages Group are affected by this decision. As far as possible, they will be offered new positions in other areas of the company.