Majestic Wine reports 15% profits rise

Majestic Wine has reported a 15% rise in full-year pretax profit, with like for like sales in UK retail stores up 2.6% in the year to 2 April, 2012.

Customer numbers have been boosted by 11% to 568,000, and average spend per transaction has grown by £2 to £128.

The wine retailer, which recently dropped its minimum online order to six bottles to boost internet sales, reported online sales were up 8% on last year, representing 10% of total UK retail sales.

The average transaction value rose 1.4% to £144 and the company processed 190,000 orders, up from 175,000 last year.

Pretax profit for the year ended 2 April rose to £23.2 million (US$36.29m) from £20.3m a year earlier.

Sales to businesses, which account for 24% of total revenue, was up 7 percent, whereas online sales rose 7.8%.

The firm’s three French stores also grew profits by £400,000 to £1.4m.

Steve Lewis, chief executive, said: “Majestic has a clearly differentiated operating model, with a focus on delivering exceptional customer service that has proved resilient in a challenging economic environment.”

The group said it was confident of being able to expand to 330 stores after opening 16 in the last financial year and a further three in Northallerton, Esher and Edinburgh since the year end.