Virgin Wines warns of full year loss after ‘external market pressures’
Virgin Wines is expecting to report a pre-tax loss of £1.5 million in the year to 3 July after it was hit by “external market pressures”.
In a trading update, the company said it is delivering good progress against the four pillars of its medium-term growth strategy, adding that it expects to deliver over 40% growth in customers acquired year-on-year. Revenue is forecast to come in at around £61 million.
Subscribe to TRBHowever, Virgin Wines said the challenging macro environment, compounded by the Middle East conflict, is putting pressure on consumer confidence and people’s appetite to spend. It also highlighted how it had worked hard to mitigate material increases in costs, especially around duty and EPR, but these had proved difficult to eliminate completely when partnered with a worsening consumer environment.
Jay Wright, chief executive of Virgin Wines, said: “Our execution against the key pillars of our growth strategy is delivering encouraging progress, despite that growth now being slightly slower than our original plan due to external market pressures.
“We are evidencing that the strategy is working, and we remain focused on taking further market share and continuing to invest in our growth channels.”
Virgin Wines has also announced that it has signed a lease for a new warehouse in Preston which will replace its Bolton facility by February 2027.
