Bottoms up: Naked Wines revenue soars on lockdown boom
Naked Wines’ first-half revenue has soared thanks to an increase in home delivery orders amid lockdown.
With pubs and bars shut from March, Naked Wines recorded an 80 per cent surge in sales to £157.1m, compared with £87.5m a year earlier.
It also narrowed first-half adjusted loss before interest and tax from £4.5m a year ago to £3.2m.
“Many customers did not know they could order wine online, to be delivered to their door, until COVID-19 motivated them to look, and they are now embracing it,” the company said.
“Naked Wines is a bigger, better business than it was twelve months ago. The last six months have been a critical period in the development of the company,” chief executive Nick Devlin said.
The company is now the largest direct to consumer wine merchant in the US and has managed to scale its operations in response to growing demand.
It reported a 104 per cent increase in warehouse capacity while customer service capacity increased by 80 per cent.
“Looking ahead, whilst the economic outlook remains uncertain, we move into the second half with continued trading momentum, supported by a strong cash balance and with conviction in the potential to unlock further growth opportunities in all our markets,” said Devlin.
The London-listed company raised its full-year sales forecast — it now expects sales growth of 55 to 65 per cent for the current year, up from the earlier forecast of 40 per cent.
Shares jumped seven per cent in early trading before settling to trade up 2.2 per cent.
Naked Wines was acquired by physical retailer Majestic Wine for £70m in 2015, but was split off from the business last year. Majestic in turn was sold to US firm Fortress Investment for £95m in December.