ANZ more profitable in the short term , “ but that that ’ s a fool ’ s game ”.
“ We get a great return on our investment , so if we keep investing into growth , then we can fund even more winemakers .”
Liberating winemakers is something Banbury is passionate about , and Naked works with three different types of winemakers – those who currently work , or have worked , for other small or big name wineries , including award-winning Caroline Dunn , who is probably the most awarded female winemaker in Australia , and used to make Wolf Blass .
It also works with fledgling wineries , those “ rags to riches kind of winemaker who had raw talent , but didn ’ t have the money to produce any kind of quantity of wine ,” as Banbury explains .
“ But now they ’ re making a really good living , with tens of thousands of cases every year , and that ’ s all because of Naked Wines ’ angels .”
While Naked doesn ’ t put restrictions on winemakers to say they can ’ t work for anyone else , it ensures the particular wines it funds are only available to its Angels who fund it .
“ Hitting 70,000 angels has been a pretty exciting milestone for us ,” he adds . “ We don ’ t sit here going ‘ we want to be a $ 1bn dollar business ’, instead we focus on liberating as many winemakers as we possibly can .”
“ We ’ re at 45 – if we can get to 100 , we ’ ve made a good start . But there are probably 1,000 to 2,000 winemakers in Australia we could potentially either help or enable them to make wine the way that they want to make it – and that ’ s a good thing for the consumer who wants to drink wine made by a real person , not a supermarket .” Banbury says Naked ’ s best customers come from referrals , usually from other customers because they ’ ve been to an Angel ’ s house for dinner , and the host has handed them a bottle of wine and said , ‘ I know the winemaker ’ or ‘ I helped make this wine possible ’.
“ They get the full story ,” he explains , “ and those people then , in turn , become our best customers .”
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