Majestic Wine, the UK’s largest wine warehouse chain with 153 stores, has posted a 9% increase in first-half pre-tax profit to £6.1m.
Sales increased by £12.6m to £106.7m, with UK like-for-like sales up 5.4% in the 26 weeks to 28 September. UK like-for-like sales in the five weeks to 2 November rose more sharply, by 6.0%.
Majestic said it had benefited from shifting the minimum purchase in-store from 12 to six bottles on 1 September. The move was designed to raise its 3% share of the British wine market.
Majestic said that while the average spend per transaction was down by 1.5% to £133 there had been an increase in the number of transactions.
During the half-year period the group opened four new stores and said it could grow its network to 250 shops. Online sales were up 25% on the year, and now make up 9.2% of retail sales.
Majestic has benefited from more people choosing to drink at home rather than go out during the economic downturn and is also likely to receive a boost from the collapse of First Quench – the owner of rival off-licence Threshers.
