ANZ
Customers enjoy one of Naked Wines’ tasting events
who loves making the product.” Naked Wines’ consumers are called ‘Angels’ – after the rich New Yorkers who used to fund Broadway shows by fledgling writers – directly support independent winemakers by paying $40 a month in return for exclusive access to delicious hand-crafted wines at low prices. Banbury was a co-founder of Naked Wines in the UK, along with eight of the old Virgin Wines team lead by Gormley. The business launched in Australia in 2012 and he took the role of Australian Managing Director in April 2016. “In Australia, we’re putting the power back into the hands of the two most important people, the wine drinker and the winemaker,” he says. “There’s a bunch of dead costs in the production of wine that the consumer ends up paying for.” The idea of a ‘naked’ wine is one where the all the things you pay for but can’t taste are stipped away. The winemaker is freed from all the things they might not be good at, like spreadsheets, selling, attending trade shows, hiring sales people
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