Naked Wines brought back founder Rowan Gormley as its chairman with immediate effect, after it revealed a delay in the publication of its full-year results.
Shares in the online wine retailer dropped a near 15% on Tuesday morning following the news that its auditors required additional time to complete their procedures.
Naked Wines, due to update on 6 July, reassured investors that it expected to deliver an adjusted EBIT towards the upper end of its £15-18m guidance, although sales were down 6% to 8% on a comparable basis in the 53 weeks to 3 April 2023.
Sales in the first quarter of the wine seller’s current year had also fallen “below expectations largely as a result of reduced new customer recruitment”.
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The retailer said: “It is clear that to deliver sustainable, profitable growth the group needs to recruit new customers at a higher rate. Having founded Naked Wines in 2008 and built the business to nearly £200m of revenues Rowan is well placed to support that goal.”
Gormley, who was originally brought back in as an advisor in September, replaces David Stead.
“My thanks to David and the team for executing a challenging transition in a turbulent market,” Gormley said.
“With a proven ability to deliver profit we now progress to the next stage, and develop plans to deliver profitable, sustainable growth.
“I am excited to return to a much larger business that has an exciting future ahead and I look forward to working closely with the reshaped Board to deliver on Naked’s full potential.”
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