Majestic Wine toasts rise in festive sales

WINE warehouse chain Majestic beat expectations over Christmas thanks to a last-minute surge in the run-up to the big day.

Steve Lewis, chief executive of Majestic Wine. Picture: Contributed

The retailer, one of the few stocks on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) to pay a dividend, grew its like-for-like sales by 2.8 per cent in the ten weeks to 6 January, with total sales rising by 5.9 per cent thanks to its expansion drive.

Chief executive Steve Lewis, pictured – who opened bottles of Louis Roederer Champagne and Saint Clair pinot noir from New Zealand to go with his turkey – said: “We also enjoyed a small boost from our ‘click and collect’ service. It’s starting from a low level but that is going to become even more important.”

Lewis said he had also extended a rewards scheme started in Scotland to the rest of the UK. He explained: “We can’t give away vouchers for free wine to new customers in Scotland due to licensing laws, so we were giving away wine glasses instead. This proved so popular that we’re now rolling it out to all newly-opened stores.”