News
Naked Wines appoints debt adviser as sales slump
Food Manufacture has learned that Interpath Advisory is advising the online wine retailer on a refinancing, a move that comes shortly after it reported a 10% year-on-year sales decline during Q3.
The Naked Wines share price, which was 56.5p as of 18 March 2024, has recovered slightly since it reached a low point in November 2023 of 28.50p. However, it remains far lower than the 117p price seen in June of that same year.
According to the firm’s interim results for Q3, published on 18 January, the 10% sales decline was in line with expectations and represented a marked improvement from the 18% decline witnessed in the first half of the year.
"We are considering the options for replacing our existing credit facility," executive chair Rowan Gormley said following the publication of the firm's H1 results in December.
"Having sought expert advice on the current debt market and considering the strength of the balance sheet we believe there may be an opportunity to secure a similar-sized facility that has less limitation on utilisation and more flexible covenants resulting in fewer restrictions on the actions we can take to reduce inventory and drive our broader change agenda."
Meanwhile, Gormley confirmed in January that the business had been forced to cut staff in response to falling sales.
He explained: “We have to recognise that we are a smaller company post Covid and our cost base has to reflect this. We have therefore taken the painful but necessary decision to reduce SG&A costs by £7m per year, securing our profit potential.”
On 5 February Naked Wines appointed Rodrigo Maza as its new chief executive, promoting Maza from the role of UK managing director following the departure of Nick Devlin in November.
Based in Norwich, Naked Wines trades in the UK, US and Australia and works with around 1,200 winemakers. Meanwhile, it has 330,000 people involved in its crowdfunding programme, termed Naked Angels.
Interpath declined to comment when contacted by Food Manufacture.
In other news, gluten free manufacturer Genius Foods has reported its results for the year ending 31 December 2022, with the bakery posting a loss of £2.4m from continuing operations.
