Majestic Wine sees profit and sales increase

Wine retailer and supplier Majestic Wine has reported an increase in profits and sales for the 52 weeks ended 2 April 2018.

The group reported that its sales were up by 2.3% for the year. It said this increase was driven by 11.3% underlying sales growth in its online wine retail business, Naked Wines.

Naked Wines is a company where customers fund independent wine makes to gain access to products at wholesale prices. The retailer reported a new customer acquisition spend of £14m for the year.

The online business also had an adjusted underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) which was six times higher than the 2017 financial year.

Majestic Retail’s profitability remained flat with underlying sales growth of 1.9%.

The company also saw a £9.8m improvement in Profit Before Tax (PBT) to £8.3m (compared with the previous year’s £1.5m loss) and an underlying adjusted PBT up 63% to £17.2m.

Rowan Gormley, group chief executive, said: “We are making headway despite headwinds.
Looking forward, we expect the UK market to remain tough, possibly even tougher than last year. Certainly trading since year end has been harder than the prior year in the UK.

“We have already, or will shortly, complete projects that eliminate unproductive work, freeing up our people to engage with customers and allowing us to reduce cost. If the UK is headed for a retail crisis, as some commentators are suggesting, then we are planning for a great crisis.”