Virgin Wines UK PLC on Tuesday said half-year profit plunged as a result of ‘one-off factors’, including postal strikes and technology snags at its warehouse.

The online wine retailer, based in Preston, England, said pretax profit for the six months that ended December 31 fell to £90,000 from £3.2 million a year earlier. The company’s revenue fell by 17% to £33.6 million from £40.6 million the year before.

Virgin Wines said this was the result of ‘one-off factors’, such as ‘teething problems’ with its new warehouse management system, two weeks of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, and postal strikes at Royal Mail.

Virgin Wines declared no interim dividend, unchanged from a year before, but said it will keep its dividend policy under review.

Looking ahead, the company said glitches with its warehouse management system have been rectified, which will allow for more normalised trading in the second half of the financial year. The company also said it will continue to focus on low-cost recruitment and maximising value from its existing customer base.

Virgin Wines previously said it expects its full-year revenue to be £63.0 million. This will be down 9.0% from £69.2 million in financial 2022.

Shares were down by 13% at 42.40 pence in London on Tuesday morning.

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