Dive Brief:

• Naked Wines Plc closed a new $60 million credit facility with PNC Bank that will be secured by the wine seller’s global wine assets, increasing its liquidity and replacing a credit line it previously had with First Citizens Bank’s Silicon Valley Bank division, according to a Tuesday release.
• The company also said that its finance chief James Crawford would step down from his roles as CFO and company director in the fall, in keeping with the two-to-three-year incentive agreement inked when he rejoined the board as CFO in 2022, according to a separate company release.
• Crawford has held multiple roles at Naked Wines over the past 10 years including as Group CFO at Naked Wines from August 2019 to January 2021, according to LinkedIn. “Over the last year we’ve reduced the cost base and inventory levels are now dropping,” Crawford said in a statement. The refinancing “represents the end of this chapter and the right time for me to step back from the CFO role.” 

Dive Insight:

Naked Wines said the new facility is structured with a term of five years and a benchmark interest rate SOFR plus 2.75-3.25%. In addition to reducing the company’s interest costs and eliminating a cash holding requirement, the terms of the new debt will also increase operational flexibility due to reducing the number of covenants, the company said.

News of the refinancing and CFO departure comes about three months after the London-listed online wine retailer reportedly hired a debt advisor in the wake of a stock slump. The advisor was brought in with the goal of securing a smaller credit facility with more flexible covenants that have fewer restrictions on the actions it can take such as reducing inventory, Sky News reported. 

In March the company said it was running a “replacement review” in advance of its existing credit facility set to expire in April 2025. “The Company said it was targeting a facility of similar scale with additional financial and operational flexibility, providing more capacity to pursue the actions being undertaken to return the company to profitable growth,” the company said. 

As it will take several weeks to include the impact of the new debt on Naked Wines’ full year audit procedures, the company said it will release its fiscal year 2024 results for the 52-week period ended April 1 by the end of July “at the earliest.” That signals a potential delay as the company in May said it expected to release its audited FY24 results in July.  

In an unaudited update to its guidance provided for the year ended April 1, the company in May said it anticipated that it would have a statutory operating loss ranging from £13 million to £18 million. 

Naked Wines touts itself as a wine market disruptor and uses a subscription-based business model to fund independent winemakers, who then make exclusive wines that the company offers its customers at “preferential prices,” according to its FY 2023 report.

The company did not respond to requests for comment.