First mass retail trade, and now wine is also slowing down online. Callmewine’s revenues down, -7.2%

The past two years have been marked by the Covid-19 Pandemic, and therefore by lockdowns, closures of bars and restaurants and limitations on International travel. Wine economy has survived on two pillars — mass retail trade and E-commerce, especially in the acute phase of the health crisis. Now, returning to normal, as it was easy to imagine, the consumption curve outside the home has begun to rise again, rapidly, inevitably taking over shares in mass retail distribution and online sales. The main players, from Tannico to Vino.com, Bernabei, Callmewine, Xtrawine and Etilika, had closed 2021 up + 40%. Following the drop in retail sales during the first half of 2022 (-6.9% still wines and -8.4% sparkling wines), certified by IRI data and analyzed by WineNews (the full article here), it is again Callmewine’s data that tells the story of the slowdown in online wine sales during the first six months of 2022.
The Pesenti family’s Italmobiliare holding controls 60% of E-commerce, which at the end of 2020 invested 13 million euros, and after reaching 20 million euros in turnover in 2021, has closed with revenues equaling 7.7 million euros; that is, 7.2% less than in the first half of 2021, when revenues instead were 8.3 million euros. However, data relating to the second quarter, which closed at + 5.4% compared to the same period in 2021, are encouraging. The gross operating margin is negative at 1.1 million euros, down mainly because of the increase in the fixed costs of the company’s growth plan, which also includes Callmewine’s second television advertising campaign. The net loss for the half year period amounted to 0.9 million euros, but amortization was more than balanced by the positive impact of joining the tax consolidation. The net financial position at June 30, 2022 was positive, instead, at 0.5 million euros, but there was a negative cash generation in the period, of 3 million euros. This can be attributed to both the negative result for the period and the growth in working capital of 2.1 million euros, due to the normal seasonality of the business and the decision to increase inventory, due to uncertainty linked to the supply status of some types of wine.