Naked Wines cuts sales guidance, shares tumble

Naked Wines tanked on Thursday after the company said it swung to a profit in the first half but downgraded its sales guidance for FY22.

In the 26 weeks to 27 September, the group swung to a pre-tax profit of £1.3m from a loss of £8.9m in the first half of 2021, with total sales up 6% at constant currency and 1% on a reported basis to £159.3m, driven by strong repeat customer sales retention and growth in repeat customer sales in the key US segment.

Naked said growth was partially offset by a drop in new customer sales, with a tough comparison to the first half of 2021, which benefited from lockdowns.

Chief executive Nick Devlin said: "I'm delighted by the progress we have made so far this year in further strengthening our winemaker lineup and customer proposition. We are now serving a global community of 947,000 members - an increase of 25% over the last year - reflecting sustained consumer desire for an alternative to traditional wine distribution."

Nevertheless, Naked Wines downgraded its FY22 sales guidance to between £340m and £355m from £355m to £375m previously. This equates to 2% to 7% sales growth at constant currency, "reflecting lower than anticipated investment in new customers".

At 0920 GMT, the shares were down 23% at 521.10p.