Naked Wines: plenty of sales but will it be a good long term investment?
Naked Wines has been another beneficiary of the pandemic with sales soaring as copious amounts of wine were consumed at home and customers reluctant to venture out. Despite the strong sales growth, we continue to question the viability of its business model and the huge marketing spend which sees losses mounting. Read our thoughts here.
Online wine retailer Naked Wines (LON:WINE) saw sales rise 80% to £157m in the first half of its financial year to 28 September. Unfortunately, the “material uplift in investment in new customers” (marketing to use the normal term!) to £22.7m, up 121% on the prior year, resulted in an adjusted loss of £2.7m. The reported loss was even higher at £8m after they incurred a £4m reduction in the deferred consideration due on the sale of the Majestic business. Naked Wines’ increased marketing spend over the period appears to differ from other online specialists, many of whom managed to attract plenty…