Naked Wines shares nosedive as boss leaves ‘with immediate effect’
- Naked Wines shares are down more than 70% in the past year; down 30% on Tuesday
- CEO Nick Devlin has agreed to resign with immediate effect’
Naked Wines shares fell more than 30 percent on Tuesday after the group cut its full-year forecasts and announced its CEO would leave the company.
CEO Nick Devlin has agreed to step down ‘with immediate effect’, with founder and chairman Rowan Gormley taking on the role of executive chairman on an interim basis until a successor is found.
Devlin will continue in the role of president of Naked Wines USA during the peak trading period before leaving the group for good.
Stepping aside, Naked Wines CEO Nick Devlin has agreed to step down with immediate effect
AIM-listed Naked Wines’ first-half sales fell 11 percent in Britain, 20 percent in the US and 19 percent in Australia, leading to a 17 percent decline in overall group sales.
The company now expects full-year sales to decline 12 to 16 percent, while previously forecasting sales to decline 8 to 12 percent.
Adjusted profit before dire expectations was reduced to £2 million to £6 million, down from £8 million to £12 million
Shares in Naked Wines fell 34.44 per cent or 15.50p to 29.50p on Tuesday, after falling more than 70 per cent in the past year.
A weaker performance in the US prompted the group’s decision to cut full-year profit and revenue expectations, Naked Wines said. Repeat customers fell short of target revenue and contribution margins.
Stock slide: Naked Wines shares are down more than 70% in the past year
However, the retailer said second-quarter trading in the UK and Australian markets was broadly in line with previous forecasts.
The loss-making company said its CEO had resigned after just three years in the role, blaming a conflict over his role leading its UK and US operations.
Rowan Gormley, executive chairman of Naked Wine, said: ‘It is disappointing to warn of underperformance compared to recent forecasts.
‘While trading in the UK and Australia has been in line with the Board’s expectations, current trading in the US has fallen far behind in both sales and margins. Customer churn remains at an all-time low.
“My view is that this deficit is largely due to execution, which in turn is largely due to Nick Devlin splitting his time between both the roles of CEO and US President.”
He added: ‘To resolve this situation, Nick has agreed to step down as CEO and I will transition to executive chairman while we recruit a replacement. Nick has agreed to help with the transition and remain as US president during the peak.
“I’m sad to see Nick go, but his legacy lives on. Naked Wines’ sales have increased by 50 percent since he took on the role of CEO, and Nick leaves with much of the hard turnaround work completed, including testing a number of exciting improvements to our customer proposition, which we now testing on a large scale. He goes with our best wishes.”