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Lots of cheery news for Majestic
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Tuesday 25th Jun 2002.
WINE warehouse chain Majestic Wine has posted a 30 per cent rise in profits over the past year and said it saw room to open another 50 stores.
Pre-tax profits for the company, which has a major outlet in Gorse Hill, rose to £5.9 million, for the year to April 1.
Chief executive Tim How said this had been on the back of good sales growth.
Like-for-like sales in its core UK business, stripping out the impact of store openings, were nearly 12 per cent over the year, while in the 11 weeks since the beginning of April, increased 12.2 per cent.
Total turnover was up 21 per cent at £104.6 million.
Mr How said the group's 100-strong stores chain saw "particularly strong growth" in wine sales from Italy and Spain, as well as good growth from South Africa. Sparkling wine and champagne also did well, he added.
The average spend per transaction was £102, with an average bottle of still wine sold for £5.35. Majestic has a minimum purchase of 12 bottles.
However, there was no significant impact from people stocking up on drinks for the World Cup, as 80 per cent of sales are wine rather than beer, Mr How said.
To drive future growth, he is aiming to expand the chain further, and sees room for another 50 stores in around six years.
Over the past year it opened five new stores, in Bristol, Newcastle, Birkdale, Edinburgh and Stourbridge, and re-sited stores in Richmond, Milton Keynes and Sutton Coldfield. Since the year end it reached the 100-store mark with an outlet in Dorchester.
Majestic, which opened its first warehouse in 1981, has two further immediate openings planned Bromley in the summer and Leicester in the autumn.
Mr How said: "We expect to open half a dozen new stores this year. We see the potential for 150 stores over the next half dozen or so years."
Shares jumped five per cent to 460p on the update. Shareholders will be paid a total dividend of 8p, up from 6.6p last time.
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