Rowan Gormley’s turnaround at Naked Wines failed to gather pace as sales fell and losses rose. 

The former chief executive, who founded the online wine seller in 2008, left four years ago only to return as chairman last year. 

Gormley, 62, was brought back to help it cut costs and reduce its inventory.

But latest results show sales fell 18 per cent to £290million in the year to the start of April while losses widened from £15million to £16.3million. 

Gormley said that while it was ‘in a much better shape’ there was still much more to do. ‘We’re making real progress turning things round,’ he said. 

‘Now the team has addressed the cost base and liquidity issues, we can focus on the big prize... restoring Naked Wines to profitable growth.’ 

Naked boomed in the pandemic but slumped once lockdown restrictions were lifted as hospitality venues reopened and cost-of-living crisis affected orders