Virgin Wines is a Norwich-based online wine seller that signs most of its customers up to subscription schemes. After a rough 2023 it rebuilt profits. In 2025 it chose to spend that profit on a five-year plan to reach £100m of sales. By June 2026 it was warning of an EBITDA loss for the year, and the shares had fallen from about 62p to 25.5p.
A wine club that sells online, mostly on subscription
Virgin Wines sells wine directly to consumers online. It stocks over 650 wines from more than 40 winemaking partners and ships from two bonded warehouses in Preston and Bolton. Most customers are on a subscription scheme. The main one is WineBank, where members pay in regularly and spend the balance on wine. It had 142k members at the end of 2025, and £7.3m of their deposits sat in a ring-fenced account. Other routes are a Wine Advisor sales team, Wine Plan and Pay As You Go.
Profit depends on three things: the cost of winning a new customer (£15.34 in the latest half), how long customers stay, and the cost of picking, packing and delivering each case. The company calls itself the lowest cost to serve in its sector. It also sells through partners such as Moonpig, Ocado and rail operators, and runs a cheaper brand, Warehouse Wines. 17 Mar 2026 22 Oct 2025
2023: a warehouse system goes wrong and profits collapse
Virgin Wines began in 2000 as a Virgin Group business. Direct Wines bought it in 2005, and its management bought it out in 2013 and listed it on AIM in 2021. In the year to June 2023, revenue fell from £69m to £59m and adjusted EBITDA (operating profit before depreciation and one-offs) from £6.2m to £1.8m. The company reported a loss before tax of £0.7m.
It blamed one-off problems, chiefly the rollout of a new warehouse management system, plus inflation. It also launched a business review, and promised double-digit sales growth in FY24 at a 4-5% EBITDA margin. 25 Oct 2023
2024: margins mend, growth does not arrive
FY24 revenue stayed at £59m, so the double-digit sales promise was missed. The margin promise was met: adjusted EBITDA was £2.8m, about 4.7% of sales. Fulfilment costs fell to 11.8% of revenue, and the company reported £1.4m of annualised cost savings. It also launched Warehouse Wines, the Vineyard Collection and a premium Australian wine club, and signed an Ocado partnership.
Profit before tax returned to £1.7m. The shares rose from 35p in October 2023 to 48p by spring 2024, then drifted back to 30.5p by January 2025. 22 Oct 2024 25 Mar 2024 25 Jul 2024 4 Oct 2024
2025: a £100m plan, paid for with profit
On 26 March 2025 the company set out a five-year plan with four pillars: more customers, commercial partnerships, Warehouse Wines and a mobile app. The target was at least £100m of annualised revenue at a 7% EBITDA margin by the end of FY30. Commercial was to reach about 20% of revenue and Warehouse Wines about 10%. A buyback of up to 15% of shares ran alongside it.
FY25 showed the early effect. Revenue stayed at £59m, new customers rose 28%, and EBITDA slipped to £2.3m. The shares reached 62.5p in August 2025. 26 Mar 2025 28 Jan 2025 22 Oct 2025
2026: more customers, thinner profit
In the half to January 2026, new customers rose 40% to 75k. Warehouse Wines revenue rose 92% and total revenue rose 2% to £34.7m. Gross margin fell to 27.7% from 29.7%, which the company attributed to stronger promotions and a changed sales mix. EBITDA fell to £0.3m from £1.6m, and the group made a pre-tax loss of £0.4m. In March it added about £0.55m of extra customer-acquisition spending and said it expected to stay EBITDA-profitable for the year.
On 12 June 2026 it said FY26 revenue would be about £61m with EBITDA of -£200k, against £100k expected. It put pre-tax loss at £1.5m, against £1m expected. The shares closed June at 28.5p. 17 Mar 2026 27 Jan 2026 12 Jun 2026
What explains the record
Two things recur. First, operations decide profit: a faulty warehouse system helped sink FY23, and cost cuts drove the FY24 recovery. Second, the company chose to trade profit for growth. Customer acquisition is up sharply with cost per customer roughly flat, but revenue has barely moved. Sales were £59m in FY24 and FY25 and about £61m expected for FY26, against a £100m target.
The company has not said in these announcements why the FY26 result fell short of its own March guidance. 25 Oct 2023 22 Oct 2024 22 Oct 2025 12 Jun 2026
The people and their choices
Jay Wright has been CEO throughout. CFO Graeme Weir retired in 2025 after 22 years, and Amanda Cherry, who had been at the company 16 years, replaced him. After the half year, four directors were promoted or hired, including a Director of Customer Growth.
On capital, the board chose to spend on growth and return cash through buybacks, with no dividend. About 7% of shares were bought back in FY25, and £2.7m more went out in the first half of FY26. Gresham House raised its stake from 41.5% to 48.2% between April 2025 and March 2026, and Monega built a 10% holding. In August 2026 the CEO, CFO, COO and Commercial Director received share awards. 5 Mar 2025 22 Oct 2025 17 Mar 2026 28 Jan 2025 17 Aug 2026 11 Apr 2025 16 Mar 2026 20 Apr 2026
Profitless growth, with cash in the bank
The company has no debt. In January 2026 it held £17.9m of gross cash, £10.6m of it net of WineBank deposits. Net cash had been £17.3m a year earlier. Buybacks, £1m of spending on the app and other growth, and extra stock bought ahead of the February duty rise all drew it down.
Trading was stronger than the profit. January and February revenue rose 12%, and customers acquired rose 54% and 83%. Warehouse Wines revenue was up 90% for FY26. The mobile app launched in March 2026. A new Preston warehouse will cost £1.6m, with the Bolton site to close by February 2027. The latest close was 25.5p on 12 October 2026. 17 Mar 2026 12 Jun 2026 26 Mar 2026
What management expects, and what is unresolved
Management says the strategy will lift revenue growth and bring a rebound in underlying profitability. It expects structural benefits from the single Preston site from FY28. The £100m, 7% margin target for FY30 has not been changed or dropped in these announcements. FY26 audited results are due in October 2026.
The open questions are whether the extra customers turn into repeat sales and whether margins recover once the promotional push eases. The warehouse build, planned for FY27, must also move fulfilment without the disruption seen in 2023. The company has not given FY27 guidance. 12 Jun 2026 26 Mar 2025 17 Mar 2026
“The continuation of this strategy will deliver increased revenue growth and a rebound in underlying profitability.” 12 Jun 2026
Written by AI from Virgin Wines UK's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources