Naked Wines losses widen, CEO to retire

(Sharecast News) - Naked Wines announced the departure of its chief executive on Thursday as it posted a widening of its first-half losses.
In the half-year to the end of September, reported pre-tax losses widened to £6.2m from £5.2m the year before. The company put this down a higher loss at the adjusted EBIT level due to continuing growth in investment in new customers and fixed costs.

Revenue rose 15.6% during the period to £87.5m with continued growth in all markets, driven by sustained investment in new customer acquisition. The US was the fastest growing market, with revenues there up 24% on a reported basis.

The company said chief executive Rowan Gormley will be retiring once the key Christmas trading season is over and the disposal of Majestic is complete.

"This is the conclusion of an 18-month succession planning process," it said.

"After a thorough review of external candidates, the board elected to promote Nick Devlin to CEO subject to Nick proving himself in the COO role. The board has now concluded that Nick has done just that - and therefore will be appointed to the post of CEO when Rowan retires."

Gormley said: "We have built a solid foundation for growth. Naked Wines is now a pure-play online retailer, with a huge opportunity in the US wine market, and the resources to capitalise on that opportunity.

"Trading has been broadly on track in the first half. Naked's US business is well up on the key measures of investment, payback and sales. Consistent with our disciplined approach to investment we will slow the rate of increase of investment in new customers in the second half, due to sluggish performance in the UK and Australian markets."

At 1100 GMT, the shares were down 1.7% at 258p.