Majestic Wines enjoys profit boom after dropping six bottle minimum sale before Christmas
Majestic Wines has reported a dramatic u-turn in profits after making a landmark change to its customer-facing business practices to better enable it to combat the threat of supermarket chains.
Nearing the end of October 2014, Majestic Wines canned its six bottle minimum sale policy. Founded in 1980, the brand sold bottles by the crate until 2009 - alienating a sizeable swath of consumers not accustomed to maintaining a collection.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, like for like sales were up 42 per cent compared against the same period in 2014 - largely supplemented by the chain's acquisition of Naked Wines in April last year.
At Majestic Retail alone, sales were up 7.3 per cent in 2015 against the 1.7 per cent drop in 2014, hinting at the power of its streamlined customer experience.
Rowan Gormley, chief executive, said: “This is an encouraging result. Majestic Commercial and Naked Wines continued to grow strongly, and I am particularly heartened to see the Majestic Retail business grow as the impact of our better pricing, better service and better looking stores starts to take effect.
“However there is still much to do. We are only three months into our three year plan and although this performance is pleasing it is too early to call it a trend.”
On the announcement on Thursday morning, Majestic shares rose by 5.7 per cent to 345.88p.