Innovative online wine merchant wins Startups Business of the Year award.
Online wine retailer Naked Wines , which has recently announced a £10million investment fund to unearth new winemaking talent, has been named the Startups Business of the Year 2010.
The Norwich-based company, which invests in independent winemakers in return for exclusive wines at preferential prices, also won the Online Business of the Year category.
Set-up six years ago to recognise the best of UK entrepreneurial talent, the awards were judged by a panel of 10 UK business leaders including the Toni & Guy Chairman Toni Mascolo.
The judges comments: “Naked Wines has enjoyed phenomenal growth both in sales and registered customers, and gained tremendous brand recognition in just two short years through its clever use of social media marketing, word-of-mouth and celebrity endorsements. We recognised the enormity of this achievement in such a competitive marketplace and commended founder Rowan Gormley and his team not only for the commercial success of the company, but for the business’ mission to fund other independent businesses. At a time when the government is waxing lyrical on the importance of an enterprise-led recovery, Naked Wines is certainly doing its bit, both for its army of loyal customers, and the wider business community.”
Rowan Gormley, Founder of Naked Wines and former CEO of Virgin Money and Virgin Wines: “To win two Startups awards, especially the big one, is an absolute honour. And it’s thanks to two sets of people; thousands of UK wine drinkers, our customers, who took the plunge and trusted us with their money. And our first few winemakers, who trusted us with their wines and adopted a new way of doing business. Since launch, we’ve helped 22 winemakers set up shop, create 85 new wines and sell over 1million bottles between them – and our goal for 2011 is to double this.”
Previous winners include Alliance & Leister, beathhatquote.com , Wonga and Glasses Direct.
To find out more about Naked Wines and their online wine community, which has attracted more than 100,000 customers, www.nakedwines.com
