Naked Wines sees losses widen as revenues slide

(Sharecast News) - Naked Wines reiterated plans to turn the business around on Friday, despite falling deeper into the red and posting a slump in half-year revenues. The AIM-listed online retailer said total revenues in the 26 weeks to 2 October had fallen 20% to £132.3m, while earnings before interest and tax slumped 52% to £2.2m. Pre-tax losses widened to £9.7m from £0.2m a year previously.

Repeat sales fell 16% during the period on a constant currency basis, while customer attrition hit an all-time low of 33%.

Naked Wines saw demand surge during the pandemic, when lockdowns shut pubs and bars and online shopping spiked.

However, more recently it has struggled with new customer acquisition and inventory levels. Last month, chief executive Nick Devlin left with immediate effect after the firm cut its full-year outlook on weaker-than-expected US sales.

Founder Rowan Gormley has become executive chair while a full-time replacement for Devlin is sought.

Gormley said: "We are moving towards a period of sustained cash generation. We have taken out £3m of cost, with £10m more to come and expect to generate £40m-£50m of cash from inventory over the next 18 months.

"In addition we have made good progress with testing an enhanced customer proposition to restore us to growth."

Gormley acknowledged that new customer acquisition was "tough, but our customers remain loyal and repeat customer KPIs are robust".

He also noted: "We will continue to report a material uncertainty in our going concern assessment, as trading remains volatile and we still need to conclude some supplier discussions.

"But I'm confident we have the headroom to weather any plausible future scenario from here."