Naked Wines warns over weak sales and delays annual results
Founder and former chief executive Rowan Gormley is returning as chairman.
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Naked Wines has revealed that sales were worse than expected over the past three months and its founder has returned to help steer the firm’s turnaround.
The drinks retailer saw shares slide after it also told investors that its full-year financial results for the year to April 3, which were due for release on Thursday, will now be delayed.
It revealed that sales over the three months since April 3 have been “below expectations”, as it blamed “reduced levels of new customer recruitment”.
The subscription business said it is likely to deliver sales of around £300 million for the current financial year if current trading trends continue.
I am excited to return to a much larger business that has an exciting future ahead
Naked added that it saw revenues of around £350 million for the year to April and is also on track for earnings before tax and interest towards the top of its £15 million to £18 million target range.
In a separate stock market statement, the firm said that current chairman David Stead will leave his role after just nine months.
He will be replaced by founder and former chief executive Rowan Gormley, who has been working as an adviser to Naked over its transformation plan since late last year.
Mr Gormley said: “My thanks to David and the team for executing a challenging transition in a turbulent market.
“With a proven ability to deliver profit we now progress to the next stage, and develop plans to deliver profitable, sustainable growth.
“I am excited to return to a much larger business that has an exciting future ahead and I look forward to working closely with the reshaped board to deliver on Naked’s full potential.”
Shares in the company were down 8.1% at 90.9p on Tuesday afternoon.