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Naked Wines reports £16.3m loss — but claims ‘real progress’
Online retailer Naked Wines has reported another pre-tax loss in its financial results — but founder Rowan Gormley has claimed the ship is being turned around.
The company’s financial results showed a pre-tax loss of £16.3 million for the 12 months to 1 April 2024, which was up on £15 million on 2022/2023 results.
It also revealed that sales fell 18% to £290 million and repeat business also fell to £65 million, which was down by a quarter on last year’s levels.
The firm had also invested £23.3 million on new customer acquisition, which was an increase of 9% year-on-year.
But chairman and founder Rowan Gormley, who returned to the retailer a year ago to steady the ship, said that the business was “making real progress in turning things around” and the team was focusing its attention on “restoring Naked Wines to profitable growth” after addressing its cost issues.
He said: “With a new invigorated team looking at the challenge with a fresh perspective, I feel confident that we will see Naked fulfil its potential to revolutionise the DtC (direct-to-customer) wine market.”
New CFO
It comes as it has also hired a new chief financial officer (CFO) following the announcement that James Crawford was stepping down as CFO last month, with Rowan Gormley stating Crawford’s leadership and expertise had “played a valuable role in navigating growth and the subsequent challenges”.
The company has now hired Mind Gym CFO Dominic Neary into the role, which he will take up on 11 November when he will also be appointed to the board.
During his time at Mind Gym, Neary returned the business to profitability and built the firm’s global operations. He has previously worked at a number of FMC, digital and consumer businesses, including Moneysupermarket.com’s insurance business and as a regional finance director at food delivery firm Just Eat.
Rodrigo Maza, Chief Executive Officer of Naked Wines, said that his international, digital and consumer experience will “make him a valuable partner” as the firm looks to “sustainable profitable growth”
Financial history
In November and December last year, Naked board members purchased a significant number of shares in the wine company, including Gormley forking out £38,630.68 on shares just two days after Naked confirmed that CEO Nick Devlin was leaving his role due to a colossal drop in revenue.
In February 2024, it was announced that Maza would take on the role of group executive officer, having been the company’s UK managing director for less than six months (since September 2023).
Naked revealed that Maza will initially work alongside Gormley to steer the ship back to calmer waters, with Naked having weathered consistently freefalling sales.
The e-retailer’s last financial results showed a 10% decline in year-on-year sales, a slight improvement on the 18% sales drop it experienced in the first half of the last financial year. In September 2023, Naked reported a £15 million loss as its sales to new customers dropped to £26.9m in 2023, down from £34m in 2022.
Gormley apologised to shareholders, saying: “The whole board of Naked Wines regret that your support and patience as shareholders, winemakers, angels and employees has not been rewarded. We are all determined to remedy that.”
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