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Naked Wines parts ways with chief financial officer

Online retailer Naked Wines has parted ways with chief financial officer Shawn Tabak by “mutual agreement” just a month after shares tumbled 44% in the wake of a gloomy sales forecast. 

Naked Wines finances - bottles of wine in a box

Naked Wines has said that former chief financial officer Shawn Tabak has exited the business “by mutual agreement”, to be replaced in the interim by James Crawford, head of Naked Wines UK.

Crawford previously headed up finances at the online retailer for five years, until 2020. He will assume the role in Tabak’s place until June next year, while continuing his role at the head of the UK business.

The online wine retailer acknowledged Tabak’s role in the growth of the business, and insisted it is well placed for future growth.

“During his [Tabak’s] time at the company we have achieved significant growth which we have consolidated in our most recently completed fiscal year”, Chief executive Nick Devlin said.

The announcement comes after Naked Wines revealed its annual sales increased by just 3% last year, and forecast that sales could decline by 4% from here due to economic uncertainty and the company’s beleaguered ‘new custom’ segment.

CEO Nick Devlin said at the time:

Naked Wines is well positioned to continue to grow amidst a changing consumer environment.

“At the same time, we will not pursue growth at any cost, and our guidance is that we intend to trade the business at or around breakeven this year.”

The company’s shares dropped another 5% on Monday in the wake of the announcement, per City A.M.

Naked Wines operates in Britain, the United States and Australia, with current customer, or ‘angel’ numbers sitting at 964,000. Analysts have expressed concerns over the retailer’s customer acquisition strategy, as well as potential fragility of repeat sale numbers.

Naked Wines was founded in 2008 by Rowan Gormley.

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