(Alliance News) - Naked Wines PLC on Friday said its interim loss widened on impairments, while a decrease in customer sales drove a plunge in revenue.

Shares in Naked Wines rose by 7.6% to 46.25 pence each in London on Friday morning.

The Norwich-based online wine seller said in the half year ended October 2 its pretax loss widened to GBP9.7 million from GBP215,000 the year before, due to an impairment of non-current assets of GBP11.5 million.

Revenue fell by 20% to GBP132.3 million from GBP165.8 million a year earlier, driven by a 16% reduction in repeat customer sales, Naked Wines explained.

Looking ahead, Naked Wines left its guidance unchanged, anticipating adjusted earnings before interest and tax in the range of between GBP2 million and GBP6 million. In the financial year ended April 3, adjusted Ebitda was GBP16.3 million.

However, the firm lowered its outlook. It predicts annual sales for the year ending March 28 will fall between 12% and 16%, from GBP354.0 million a year prior.

Executive Chair Rowan Gormley said: "We are moving towards a period of sustained cash generation. We have taken out GBP3 million of cost with GBP10 million more to come and expect to generate GBP40-50 million of cash from inventory over the next 18 months. In addition we have made good progress with testing an enhanced customer proposition to restore us to growth."

By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter

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