After just three weeks in the job, a Naked Wines director has left leading to analysts warning that "something has gone awry" at the Norwich firm.

The wine retailer's shared dropped another quarter when the markets first opened after news of Pratham Ravi's departure.

Mr Ravi sat on the board as a non-executive director (NED) and is an analyst with Florida-based investor Punch Card Capital, one of Naked Wines’ largest shareholders with an approximately 10pc stake.

He joined the firm just two weeks and five days before his resignation.

“The departure of an NED who represented the group’s largest shareholder and had joined less than three weeks ago… so, something has gone somewhat awry,” said Wayne Brown, an analyst at Liberum.

Naked Wines has been struggling recently warning that customers are not sticking around as much as it would have liked.

It invested heavily in recruiting new subscribers in the hope that they will become loyal customers and more than offset that investment in the long term.

But, in a June update, it said retention rates had fallen from 88pc to 80pc in the last financial year. Days later the chief financial officer stepped down.

It marked the end of the pandemic highs for the online-only business. Shares fell 40pc on that day alone, and are now down by more than 87pc in the last year.

Naked Wines told shareholders on Tuesday September 13: “The company is reviewing potential operational and financial plans for the next 18 months and will update on these plans alongside our trading update.

“The group’s focus is on developing plans demonstrating increased profitability, cost restraint and improved payback.

“Alongside this process we are in active discussions to address our credit facility to reflect any revised plan.

“The group remains in compliance with all obligations around this facility through (the first quarter) and expects to have headroom to the (second quarter) covenant tests.”

Mr Brown added: “The business update talks about cost-cutting, focusing on profitability going forward, which we interpret as a change in strategy and not being so aggressive on growth.

“This could imply a smaller business in the future and reining in ambitions, which makes sense considering how poor key performance indicators are.”