August 31, 2016

San Francisco-based private equity firm, TSG Consumer Partners announced it has agreed to acquire Duckhorn Wine Company (DWC) from GI Partners for an undisclosed amount.

“Duckhorn Wine Company is one of the most respected wine portfolios in the world,” said TSG President Jamie O’Hara in a recent statement. “Duckhorn boasts six wineries that are all recognized as benchmarks for their regions and categories, and a world-class estate program spanning California’s Napa Valley, Sonoma County, and Anderson Valley, and Washington State’s Red Mountain.”

The deal includes all six of Duckhorn’s wineries totaling 600 acres of estate vineyards – Duckhorn Vineyards, Goldeneye, Paraduxx, Migration, Decoy, and Canvasback and includes the famous Three Palms Vineyard in Napa Valley, California.

All winemakers attached with the six wineries will be retained as will all employees, and well as Alex Ryan, president and CEO of Duckhorn, who has been with the company since 1988. Dan and Margaret Duckhorn will remain involved in the company after the transaction is complete.

The announcement of the sale comes weeks after Duckhorn made a concerted effort to contradict rumors that the company was for sale; denying reports in June that Constellation would possibly acquire the company from GI Partners for $800 million.

Founded in 1976 by Dan and Margaret Duckhorn, the company was acquired by GI Partners in 2007 as part of a deal that allowed its 80 investor families to monetize their positions and exit the company. In the ensuing years, GI partners invested $60 million to expand the company’s vineyard portfolio by 350 acres, to build and acquire state-of-the-art winemaking facilities, and to launch multiple new wines, according to Cheers Online.

Today, Duckhorn is one of the fastest growing wine companies in the U.S. market, having just had its most profitable fiscal year to date. The company’s Decoy brand grew by 22.3 percent in 2015 to a distribution of 406,000 cases and is on pace to be one of the top 50 wine brands by retail sales value, while its Duckhorn brand saw growth of 18.8 percent last year according to Impact Databank, reports Shanken News Daily.

“We are thrilled by this incredible opportunity to partner with and invest in a company as dynamic and well-run as Duckhorn, a rarity in any industry,” said O’Hara. “Our goal is to support the company’s vision and to use our consumer expertise to bring the Duckhorn portfolio of wines to an even broader global audience.”

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Lynda Kiernan