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Naked Wines takes decision to slash all lines by 50%

08 January 2024 By Sarah Neish

The online wine retailer has cut the price of all its wine bottles and cases by half for US customers as the business strives to recover from a slew of missteps and disappointing financial results.

Naked Wines was inevitably going to have to pull something big out of the bag to kickstart 2024.

In November 2023, the e-retailer sacked its CEO Nick Devlin, blaming Devlin’s divided attention between the business’ commitments in the UK and US for the company’s freefalling results. In the six months to 2 October, Naked made a loss of £9.7 million as sales fell by 20%, led in part by a failure to secure new customers.

At the same time, the company also revealed it was reducing its revenue expectations for full-year sales to between -12% and -16%, and apologised to shareholders, causing shares in the firm to nosedive.

Senior board members then scrambled to buy up more than £75,000 worth of company shares between them, with Naked’s executive chairman Rowan Gormley, non-executive directors Jack Pailing and Stephen Bolton, and CFO James Crawford all putting their hands in their pockets.

Now, Naked Wines has slashed the price of all its wine bottles and cases by 50% for US consumers during the month of January, with no subscription required, in a bid to plump out dwindling sales.

The half-price deal applies sitewide across reds, whites and sparkling wines, though a six-bottle minimum purchase applies.

Calling it “our biggest ever January sale” US consumers can pick up a 14-bottle pack of “rich and refined” reds for US$178.99, representing a saving of US$202.

An 11-pack of “everyday sippers” white wines is going for US$119 (saving US$123.50 on its usual price).

Not such an attractive deal for UK consumers

However, the UK deal is significantly less attractive, with the site offering “up to 33% off” for Angel customers only during January. ‘Angels’ are those who pay £25 per month into their Naked Wines account.

Offers are while stocks last and vouchers cannot be used as part or all of the purchase.

The discrepancy between the US and UK offers could be partially due to declining wine consumption in the US, with the only growth segment being the 60+ age group, according to the latest Silicon Valley Bank Wine Industry Report 2023.

Rising bottle prices in producer regions such as Napa is putting US consumers off, with the average bottle of Napa wine now costing more than US$100.

Virginia and Washington have the lowest bottle prices of all US states, charging an average of US$31.73 and US$49.79 respectively, which many households still find steep as they struggle to budget against rising inflation and energy prices.

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