Virgin Wines sees strong Christmas trading period

By Oliver Catchpole

Published: 27 January, 2026

Online wine retailer Virgin Wines has released its Christmas trading update, which shows a strong performance across the seven weeks to 26 December.

The company saw a 5% increase in revenue year-on-year over that period and a return to growth in its customer base, with a 40% increase in new customers.

The group also released a trading update for the six months ending 2 January 2026 (H1), over which revenue rose by 2% year-on-year to £34.7m, outperforming the wider drinks market which saw a contraction of 11%.

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Commenting on the company’s performance Jay Wright, CEO of Virgin Wines, said: “We are delighted to report a positive first-half performance in which we have delivered meaningful market share gains enabled by our growth strategy.

“It was particularly encouraging to see 5% year-on-year growth over the key Christmas trading period, driven by a 40% increase in customer acquisition, the continued growth of our Commercial channel and a 92% increase in revenue year-on-year from our Warehouse Wines brand.”

Virgin Wines added that it had seen a positive performance across all four “pillars of its growth strategy”, including increased customer acquisition (up 40% year-on-year, while maintaining cost per acquisition), increased revenue from commercial partnerships (such as with Moonpig), progress on the development of its mobile app and a 92% rise in revenue from Warehouse Wines year-on-year.

The company remains both debt free and has a strong balance sheet, with – compared to the same period last year – falls in its gross cash (24%) to £17.9m and its net cash (39%) to £10.6m, reflective of investment in customer acquisition, buying inventory to protect against the upcoming duty rise and £2.7m of share buybacks.

According to investment bank Cavendish, net cash is forecast to fall to £7.4m by end of FY26, as the company increases spending on recruitment and marketing to drive profits.

Wright added: “With a strong balance sheet, agile sourcing model, a loyal customer base, and the imminent launch of our mobile app which we believe will drive further customer engagement, we remain confident in a full-year performance in-line with our growth expectations.”

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