Virgin Wines UK PLC (AIM:VINO) said the passing of Queen Elizabeth II cost the business £1.7mln as it issued a profit warning that resulted in its shares slipping 24% to 56p.
Full-year revenue and profit “will be impacted,” with sales to be around £63mln, compared to 2022 income of £69.2mln.
For the six months to December 31, the direct-to-consumer wine retailer said the performance was impacted by one-off factors that saw revenues for the period fall to £33.7mln from £40.5mln.
Included in that was the death of the Queen as the company paused all marketing activities.
Virgin Wines also bemoaned the Christmas period, which it said was impacted by “both external and internal issues.”
Postal strikes, bad weather, difficulties following the introduction of a new warehouse management system and cut-off dates bought forward by couriers played into a roughly £1.5mln loss of revenue.
"We are disappointed with our profitability performance over what has been a difficult trading period, which has been exacerbated by one-off exceptional circumstances,” said chief executive Jay Wright.