Naked Wines reports 81% sales surge during lockdown

By Lisa Riley

Published: 24 June, 2020

Naked Wines has reported an 81% surge in sales during April and May, making up the first two months of fiscal 2021.

The online wine retailer, which split from Majestic last year, said profit after tax for fiscal year 2020 ended 30 March came in at £8.2m, compared to a loss of £9.4m for the previous year.

Revenue for the year rose 13.7% to £202.9m, while losses before tax narrowed to £5.4m from almost £10m in 2019.

Naked also announced that its current chief financial officer James Crawford has been appointed MD of its UK business.

The company said it was “delighted to report a strong set of results to conclude a year of transition for Naked Wines”.

“We are ending the year with great momentum behind our growth plans and a simplified, well-capitalised online pure play model that is ideally suited to the current climate,” said Nick Devlin, group chief executive.

Devlin also took the opportunity to thank all colleagues for their “determination, flexibility, and commitment to our customers throughout the year, but especially over the past three months.

“I’m proud of the way they have allowed Naked to respond to the challenges posed initially by Covid-19 and subsequently by the sharp acceleration in growth we have seen since mid-March,” he said.

While predictions were “harder than ever this year”, he added he was excited about the company’s plans for growth and confident that “the mission of Naked to connect everyday wine drinkers to the world’s best winemakers is more relevant than ever”.

“I believe the enduring impact of Covid-19 will be to accelerate trends towards direct, online models in categories like wine and that Naked is well positioned to deliver the combination of quality, value and community customers are looking for.”

Naked said Crawford, who has been managing the UK business on an interim basis since November 2019, will step down from the board upon identification of is successor as chief financial officer.

“James has taken on the interim UK role and risen to the recent challenges admirably. James’ desire is to develop his career with a move into general management and the Board and I are delighted to support him to realise this ambition within the Naked Group,” said Devlin.

In April, Naked Wines announced it expected revenue for FY20 to be in excess of £200m.

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