Majestic Wine plans to double its number of stores to 330, having revealed healthy sales and profits increases. Sales for the year to 28 March rose 10.3% to £257.3m while pre-tax profits grew by 26.6% to £20.3m. Like-for-likes in the UK were up 5.3%, while wholesale sales to restaurants and hotels grew by 17.2% and now represent almost a quarter of UK sales.
Majestic's customers swelled by 8.2% to over half a million while the number of transactions was up 12.5% to two million. The average bottle of wine purchased cost £6.94, 38p more than the previous year. Majestic currently operates 165 stores, having opened 12 in the last financial year.