Naked Wines gets new boss

Naked Wines has announced a new CEO after former boss Nick Devlin left the role with immediate effect in November 2023 following successive drops in expected revenues.

Naked Wines announced this morning that Rodrigo Maza, its UK managing director since September 2023, will assume the role of group chief executive officer (designate).

Maza, previously of AB InBev, will work alongside executive chairman Rowan Gormley, the founder and former CEO of Naked Wines who returned in July 2023 in a bid to steady the ship after slower than expected growth.

Over the next several months they will work together to ensure a successful transition, after which Maza will assume the group CEO role permanently and Gormley will resume his previous role as non-executive chairman. Maza will also join the board of Naked Wines with immediate effect.

Prior to Naked Wines, Maza launched and scaled online alcohol delivery businesses across e-commerce and subscription models, including AB InBev’s TaDa Delivery in Latin America and PerfectDraft in Western Europe. He also held executive roles at Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V. and AB InBev.

In a press release published today, Naked Wines said Maza had been closely involved in the company’s “turnaround strategy”.

Gormley commented on the announcement: “We are delighted to welcome Maza as CEO Designate. In his short time with us he has proven his ability to energise his team to get Naked back on the growth path, and his previous experience has a compelling combination of entrepreneurial startups and big company best practice, both of which we are going to need.”

Last month, Naked Wines reported results in line with expectations for the third quarter with a 10% decline in year-on-year sales — but an improvement on the 18% fall in the first half of the financial year.

The online retailer previously announced it was reducing its revenue expectations for full-year sales to be -12% to -16%, causing shares to plummet.

The company has also appointed Emma Kamel, formerly COO of the UK business, to succeed Maza as UK general manager.