Direct-to-consumer wine retailer Virgin Wines has made three senior appointments to its leadership team.
Danny Cooper has joined from Gousto as chief information officer, while Gareth Beaty – most recently business development manager at Odeon – has been hired as Virgin’s head of customer growth.
Andy Potts, meanwhile, has been appointed trading director of the group’s new value proposition Warehouse Wines. He has spent his entire career with Virgin Wines.
Cooper – who has worked in IT for almost three decades at companies including JP Morgan, the BBC and Yoox Net-A-Porter Group – would be responsible for providing “best-in-class digital solutions” while ensuring the company remained “structurally and commercially robust”, Virgin Wines said.
Beaty’s appointment came “at a critical time”, Virgin said, adding it continued to “prioritise high-quality customer acquisition in an ever-more competitive pricing and promotional market”.
Potts would be “responsible for driving growth at Warehouse Wines”, which had “produced encouraging performances in FY24 to date”, it added.
“I am delighted to bolster our executive team with three high-calibre appointments,” said Virgin Wines CEO Jay Wright. “Each has significant sector experience and will play a critical role in vitally important areas as we continue to drive sustainable growth and deliver a customer experience of the highest quality.”
The hires come as Virgin Wines continues to make progress with its turnaround efforts. Revenues in the half year to 29 December 2023 increased 2% to £34.3m, while underlying EBITDA rose 122% to £1.8m.
In March, the group said it was confident it would meet profit expectations for the full year.
Virgin Wines was one of the big winners in the pandemic, but was hit as consumers reined in online shopping and increased cost pressures weighed on profitability.
Shares in the group are currently trading at 44p, significantly below the 197p per share at which they were first listed in March 2021.
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