Wine Service Cooperative has handed its remaining wine storage, fulfillment and transportation operations to Yandell Companies, a move that took effect Nov. 2 and puts a Solano County logistics firm in charge of the Napa Valley co-op's warehouses. The cooperative, which has served member wineries since 1972, remains member-owned even as its day-to-day operations now run through an outside partner.
What the Deal Covers
According to the Press Democrat, the partnership gives the co-op's roughly 60 member vintners and nonmember clients access to Yandell's logistics network, including temperature-controlled case storage, regional deliveries and bulk-wine tanker transportation. Yandell now operates the cooperative's three warehouse locations in American Canyon, Napa and St. Helena, according to the same report. Wine Service Cooperative president Steve Tamburelli said the arrangement connects member wineries with providers at competitive pricing, per the Napa Valley Register, reflecting the co-op's longstanding reliance on collective purchasing power to keep costs down for its members.
Tamburelli also said 85% of the cooperative's employees were offered and accepted jobs with Yandell, the station's report notes, suggesting much of the existing workforce carried over into the new structure. Wine Service Cooperative remains member-owned, and wineries retain their ownership interests even though Yandell now handles the physical logistics work, per the same account.
Yandell's Growing Footprint in Napa Valley
Yandell Companies describes itself as a Northern California wine, beverage and specialty freight logistics provider, and the firm opened its Devlin Road warehouse in Napa this year as part of its expansion in the region, according to the Napa Valley Register. Yandell occupied the newly built facility at 115 Devlin Road in May and was fully licensed and bonded there by June 30, the Press Democrat reports. The company has continued investment from growth equity partner Fort Point Capital, per the Register's account.
Warehouse capacity figures for Yandell vary by source. The Press Democrat reports that Yandell operates nine buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet of warehouse space, while Yandell's own services page says its storage solutions are centered around 900,000 square feet, including temperature-controlled, food-grade and bonded storage. The evidence does not clarify whether the two figures reflect different dates or different measures of the company's footprint.
A Second Outsourcing Move in Less Than a Year
This is not the first time this year that Wine Service Cooperative has shifted operations to an outside partner. Back in January, the co-op moved its direct-to-consumer fulfillment business to Napa-based Wineshipping, a step that followed the cooperative's launch of DTC order fulfillment back in 2008, according to the Press Democrat's earlier reporting. That shift came as the co-op's DTC fulfillment business had been soft because of a slowdown in the industry in recent years, the outlet reported at the time. Wine Industry Advisor had earlier reported that the Wineshipping partnership, announced in April 2025, was framed as a way to give members seamless, best-in-class DTC fulfillment service.
Taken together, the two outsourcing agreements mark a broader shift toward purchasing power rather than providing every service itself, the Press Democrat reports. According to the same report, Vitek said the wine industry had gone through a softer stretch, and that pattern was showing up across the region.
Yandell's Track Record of Regional Acquisitions
Yandell's expansion into Napa Valley logistics follows an earlier move into neighboring Sonoma County. In February 2024, the Press Democrat reported that SC Warehouses, a Yandell family company, had purchased Sonoma County competitor Eagle Transportation Company and related firm Redwood Empire Wine Storage. That acquisition closed on Dec. 19, 2023, with financing from Fort Point Capital Partners, according to the outlet's reporting. The pattern suggests Yandell has been steadily building out its footprint across the North Bay's wine logistics sector well before the Wine Service Cooperative deal took shape.
