Naked Wines secures £6m to fund international expansion Naked Wines ships 10m bottles of wine a year across the UK, US and Australia, and has over £25m invested in more than 130 wine makers through its unique 150,000 customer "angels" network. This model works by investing funds from regular customers into independent wine makers. In exchange, customers get exclusive access to the wines and at wholesale prices - typically 40pc to 60pc below retail. Mr Gormley, who used to work for Sir Richard Branson at Virgin, where he ran both Virgin Money and Virgin Wines, launched Naked Wines in 2008. Turnover at the company hit £40m last year. "We will not expand geographically beyond our current territories," he added. We had to go to the States because it is the largest wine market in the world. We went to Australia only because an amazing opportunity opened up that we couldn't turn down. But now we're going to concentrate on building the business we have. According to Mr Gormley, the wine industry is still ripe for reinvention. "For years, wine companies have treated their wine makers very badly," he says. They are locked away in dank cellars; theirs are the old pick-ups in the car park while sales directors drive Aston Martins. We give those wine makers the opportunity to profit from their skills and get close to the end customer at the same time. Naked Wines has seen unparalleled success in the US, a market sometimes termed "the graveyard for UK firms." Mr Gormley said $500m (£320m) has been wasted in America on failed wine start-ups alone. "All the other companies tried to focus on selling the wine, which confuses people," he says. We sell the wine makers, their story. That's a lot easier to relate to than, 'this bottle tastes like gooseberries, cat urine and bicycle saddles."" Yet, despite Naked Wines" success in its niche on a global scale, it has yet to realise any significant market share. However, Mr Gormley is philosophical about this: "Do I think Tesco pays us the slightest bit of notice. Does an elephant notice a pimple on its back?