AWGL AWG Ltd (GM)

Chairman of the Board, Joseph E. Antonini, announced that AWG, Ltd. (Andretti Wine Group, Ltd.) completed a 20 to one reverse stock split on Sept. 14, 2005. Filing was made with the State of Nevada for finalization and approval. AWG, Ltd. stock, listed under the symbol "AWGL," will trade on the Pink Sheets at $3.00 a share with 829,228 shares outstanding. Antonini indicated, "This is a further step in increasing shareholder value as the company continues its growth in the United States and abroad." Andretti Napa and California varietals are sold in 52 markets in the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Czech Republic, Philippines, Denmark and Croatia. Production for 2005 was 40,000 cases. The Andretti winery is in Napa Valley, Calif., on 52 acres in the heart of one of the best appellations in California. Background on AWG, Ltd. Chairman Joseph Antonini: (This information is from a copyrighted story that appeared in Mass Market Retailers and is being used with their permission.) A decade has passed since Joe Antonini stepped down as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Kmart. Since then, Antonini has built a productive, successful and satisfying life and business career outside Kmart - and, indeed, outside retailing. He runs his own company, JEA Enterprises, which manages and oversees the operations of some 10 different businesses. The most significant of these is Andretti Winery, a California winery he operates with race car driver Mario Andretti. As well, the onetime Kmart CEO oversees an enterprise that sells bottled water to Nestle, runs a company that manages quality-control tests for the auto parts industry, is involved in a real estate development company, oversees various oil and gas ventures, and owns a 53,000-square-foot automotive plant. If Kmart's former CEO has any regrets, recriminations, fond memories or second thoughts about his 30 years at the discount retailer, he keeps them pretty much to himself. "I enjoyed my years at Kmart," he says simply, "but I enjoy what I'm doing today just as much. There's something exciting about running a group of businesses and seeing them succeed, seeing the impact you can make. And I like being my own boss. Antonini can almost be forgiven for putting his Kmart experience behind him, at least the last weeks and months of that experience. At his departure, many of the decisions he made were under serious question, and more than a few retailing observers believed he had the Troy-based retailer headed in the wrong direction. With the wisdom of hindsight, however, most of those decisions have turned out to be perspicacious, if not downright clairvoyant. Under his direction, Kmart became one of the very first U.S. retailers of significance to grasp the significance of global expansion. So it was that, during the Antonini years, Kmart opened stores in Mexico, made investments in Singapore and Australia, made some initial overtures to the Hungarian government, and purchased 14 department stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This latter group of stores, the first of which was reopened as a Kmart in Prague in 1993, were sold to Tesco after Antonini's departure, subsequently becoming the cornerstone of that U.K. retailer's Eastern European landmark expansion program. Today, Tesco is Eastern Europe's leading hypermarket retailer. While running Kmart, Antonini opened the discounter's first food/general merchandise superstores; developed the Border's, Office Max and Sport's Authority chains, among other specialty retailers, as the Kmart divisions; embarked on the most aggressive store-renewal program in the retailers history; streamlined buying, merchandising and operations at the Kmart discount stores; developed the Martha Stewart and Jaclyn Smith brands; and turned in some of the most successful years the retailer ever enjoyed. While Antonini ran Kmart, the retailer's sales increased by $14 billion, reaching a record $38 billion in the fiscal year ended January 27, 1993, the same year the company's earning topped $940 million. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that no Kmart CEO in the years since Antonini's departure 10 years ago has eclipsed his performance - or even come close to equaling it.