Opinion: Does Gormley’s departure leave Naked Wines exposed?
By 
Hugh Radojev2019-11-21T16:09:00
Alongside Naked Wines’ first set of results since investors approved the sale of Majestic Wine in September came the shock revelation that its founder and chief executive Rowan Gormley would be departing the business after Christmas.
In the City, the news was met with a near-7% drop in the Naked share price to 245p by the same afternoon.
Despite that slump, investors seem to believe in Naked Wines’ direct-to-consumer vision to become the ‘Netflix of wine’ and focus on growing sales in the lucrative US market. Shareholders’ unanimous decision to rubber-stamp the sale of its Majestic Wine business is a testament to that.
What they had not banked on, however, was not having Gormley in situ to lead its bid to crack to the US.
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