Naked Wines revenue soars 80%

By Lisa Riley

Published: 19 November, 2020

Naked Wines has reported an 80% jump in revenue to £157.1m for the half year ending 28 September 2020, boosted by lockdowns as customers stayed home and ordered delivery.

It recorded a pre-tax loss of £8.9m, an increase of £2.7m on the same period last year, which the company put down to a non-cash write down.

It said its cash position had been strengthened by £21.6m, taking it to £76.3m.

Commenting on the results, CEO Nick Devlin said the last six months had been a “critical period” in the development of the company.

“Naked Wines is a bigger, better business than it was twelve months ago. We have delivered exceptional growth and a permanent step change in scale and efficiency for the organisation. We have a business today that is not only larger, but structurally improved and ideally positioned to deliver sustained growth in the coming years,” he said.

Ultimately the most significant impact of Covid-19 on Naked Wines was not found in the interim results, but in the way it had accelerated the growth of the online wine category and increased consumer willingness to “trial a new and better way to buy wine”, he added.

“Delivering transformative growth, against a backdrop of new working conditions required by Covid-19, has required us to rapidly solve a series of operational challenges. We have done this whilst maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.”

Looking ahead, Devlin said: “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.”

Naked Wines also said its warehouse capacity had been increased by 104% in the period, with customer service capacity up 80%, as it focused efforts on growing its consumer base as people continue to drink at home in larger numbers.

On the back of the half year results, Naked raised its full-year sales forecast saying it now expects sales growth of 55% to 65% for the current year, compared with an earlier forecast of 40%.

Earlier this week, Naked announced it has appointed Shawn Tabak as its new chief financial officer (CFO).

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