Majestic Wine's vintage profits

Majestic Wine today reported a corking 20% rise in first-half profits, but cautioned that sales have recently slowed down.

"We had a couple of poor weeks in October, which is always a relatively weak month for us," said chief executive Steve Lewis.

"I think people are saving up ahead of Christmas and believe we are well prepared for that.
"We launched our first Christmas promotions two weeks ago and sales growth is back on track."

Majestic shares fell 3% on the fact that same-store sales in the last six weeks declined by 1.1% as against the first-half growth of 2.7%.

November and December normally account for some 30% of all Majestic's sales and 50% of annual profits.

The company's first TV advertising campaign begins tonight.

Majestic's first-half profits grew to £8.8 million on total sales up 8.7% at £128 million. The dividend goes up 15% to 3.8p a share.

Lewis said that best-sellers included prosecco, New Zealand sparkler Lindauer and Argentinian malbec.

The company has also seen a 20% jump in fine wine sales (£20 plus a bottle) as it rolled the concept out to all 174 Majestic stores.

Lewis reckons that the chain can eventually expand to 330 stores across the UK.