Majestic Wine toasts rise in profits to beat forecast

Published on Monday 25 June 2007 12:15

MAJESTIC Wine, the wine warehouse operator, today uncorked a strong set of annual numbers and said sales since the start of the current year were also up.

The company, which has eight of its 136 warehouses in Scotland - including two in Edinburgh - toasted pre-tax profits of 16.2 million, up 14.1 per cent on a year earlier and better than City forecasts.

Overall sales for the firm rose by 11 per cent over the 53 weeks to April 2, with like-for-like sales up 4.9 per cent.

Same store sales since the start of the new trading year were also up by 4.9 per cent, the company said.

The price of the average bottle of wine purchased at Majestic is now 5.75, while the average spend per transaction has increased to 123 from 118 a year earlier.

Majestic chief executive Tim How said the firm continued to see a trend for customers to purchase higher quality wines.

Sales of fine wine - wine priced at 20 and above - increased 25 per cent and now accounts for 3.6 per cent of UK retail sales. There are currently 28 stores with dedicated fine wine sales areas and by Christmas Majestic expects to have extended this service to 40 outlets.

Chief executive Tim How said: "We believe that prospects for the future growth of Majestic are good."

Sales growth was particularly strong in wines from Bordeaux, Loire, Spain, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.

Sales of Champagne and rose wine also continued to show good growth.