Published: 16th November 2009
Written by: OLN News Team
Majestic has reported a solid sales increase despite difficult trading conditions and a downturn in corporate business.
The retailer’s pre-tax profits rose by 9% to £6.1 million in the six months to September 28, while like for like sales increased by 5.4%.
Chairman Steve Burke said: “Sales to private customers continue to show strong growth, up 8.9% in the period.
“In contrast, economic conditions continue to affect businesses adversely and sales to these customers have declined 6.9%.
“The average bottle price of still wine sold in Majestic is now £6.41 up from £6.19 last year. We have seen a slight reduction in the average spend per transaction from £135 to £133 as a result of the decline in sales to business customers.”
The company, which now has 153 branches and plans for at least 250, said the integration of Lay & Wheeler was proceeding well, and added that online sales were up almost 25%.
Burke said the recent decision to allow six-bottle purchases had produced “encouraging” results.
“We have seen a small reduction in average spend that has been more than compensated by an increase in transaction volume,” he reported. “We have also seen an increase in the number of new customers registering on our database.”