(Alliance News) - Naked Wines PLC on Thursday said its trading performance over the Christmas period was in the expected range, with higher underlying revenue for its continuing business.
For the ten weeks ended December 31, the online wine retailer described its Christmas trading performance as being "within the range of expectations", and noted an 11% rise in underlying revenue for its continuing businesses.
This underlying figure excludes Majestic Wine Warehouse, Lay & Wheeler, and Les Celliers de Calais, which were all sold in 2019.
Norwich-headquartered Naked Wines announced the GBP95 million sale of Majestic Wine and Les Celliers de Calaisin in August, following this, it changed its name to Naked Wines from Majestic Wine and became an entirely online business once the deal was completed in December.
Lay & Wheeler was sold for GBP11.3 million in October.
Due to an increased proportion of repeat customer sales, Naked Wines said its total gross margin was one percentage point higher year-on-year.
The firm also expected to have invested at the lower end of its interim guidance in new customers, which is said reflects disciplined investment in order to maintain its payback target of four times. This reduced investment is expected to "flow through to higher profit" for 2019.
Nick Devlin, who has taken over from outgoing CEO Rowan Gormley as group chief executive with immediate effect, said: "The team have worked hard over the Christmas period and delivered a good performance. With the important Christmas season behind us, we are now acutely focused on executing our plans and achieving our huge growth potential.
"Rowan leaves the business in great shape. We have the internal capability, clarity of purpose and financial resources to push ahead with our growth plans and deliver value for customers and shareholders alike."
The leadership change was announced in November. Further, as previously disclosed, Greg Hodder has now formally departed the board, having handed the role of chair over to John Walden at the end of Naked Wines' August annual general meeting.
Shares in Naked Wines were down 1.0% at 222.18 pence in London on Thursday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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