Wine specialist fights back against grocers' strength
Majestic Wine has unveiled sparkling like-for-like sales and announced two senior staff promotions.

Like-for-likes were up 5.2 per cent for the nine weeks to January 2.

Majestic chief executive Tim How said: 'We are pleased with our sales performance over the Christmas period. Wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Spain, Chile and New Zealand sold very well and Champagne sales grew strongly.'

Majestic retail director Steve Lewis has been promoted to chief operating officer with immediate effect and Justin Althorp, formerly manager of the buying department, has joined the board as buying director.

Numis analyst Steve Davies said: 'This is clearly a good performance in the current environment: it re-emphasises that Majestic has a clear niche in the wine market and can succeed despite the strength of the grocers in this product category. The recent demise of Unwins showed that not all wine specialists are in such a strong position.'

Topics