Online wine retailer Naked Wines has made significant steps in improving and developing its range over the last few years. Buying director Matt Smith and wine director Ray O’Connor MW have continued to plug what they saw as key gaps in the range across various classical regions, as they now look to introduce a broader set of wine styles to fulfil the tastes of new consumers.
The company uses a crowd-funding business model to fund production costs for winemakers across the world, providing its members, dubbed ‘Angels’, with exclusively made wine directly from its producers.
Scroll down for the top 30 buys from Naked Wines this autumn Reports of slowing sales and £15m loss
Despite an increase in revenue and subscriber numbers during the pandemic (which shot from 260,000 to 350,000 in the UK), current UK membership numbers now sit around 300,000.
‘We haven’t been aggressively acquiring new customers recently,’ said Smith, ‘we’ve been focusing on providing an excellent experience to our members. Driving innovation, finding quality wines and spirits, broadening the range to a degree, plugging some gaps, and keeping things really interesting [for members].’
The delayed release of the company’s results for the financial year up to April 2023, published on 19 September 2023, shows a £15m loss, despite total sales being up 1% year on year.
The results also show that the company has had a ‘slower than expected’ start to the new trading year, and share prices have dropped significantly.
Founder and former CEO
