Majestic Wine to expand distribution network in UK

Majestic Wine, a specialist wine and champagne retailer in the UK, has plans to double its number of stores to 330 over the next 10 years as it gained good profits after the demise of Oddbins, a wine and alcohol retail chain in UK.

The company has 165 stores in the UK, including 11 in Scotland, which recorded a 26.6% jump in pre-tax profits to £20.3m in the year to 28 March on the back of a 10.3% rise in turnover to £257.3m.

Majestic Wine chief executive Steve Lewis said, "The company's sales figures were continuing to benefit from the decision in 2009 to reduce the minimum number of bottles it sells in a single transaction from 12 to six."

"We still have the classic Majestic customer - the BMW or Mercedes driver - but we're also seeing a much younger customer because six bottles makes it much more accessible," Lewis added.

After opening its branches in Dundee and Livingston in August, the company plans to establish two stores in Edinburgh, to add to its existing three, and a further two in the greater Glasgow area.

Majestic's business model is built around customers being able to park outside its stores so that they can buy in bulk, the company said.

While Majestic's full-year results showed a 2.5% fall in the average spend per transaction to £126, the number of transactions increased by 12.5% to two million on the back of an 8.2% rise in the number of customers to 511,000.