Majestic Wine's move to six-bottle cases pays off

Cutting the minimum number of bottles drinkers must buy from 12 to six helped Majestic Wine more than double its profits last year.

The number of people who made purchases jumped by 54,000 to 472,000 but the average spend per transaction was down just 4% at £129 a time.

"We are very encouraged by our ability to attract new customers which will allow us to continue to grow our market share," said Steve Lewis, chief executive.

"While the UK economic outlook remains uncertain, we believe we are well positioned for future growth."

He pointed out that people buying just six bottles spent an average £8.79 a bottle against £7.60 a bottle for those buying a dozen.

That compares with a market average across the UK of £4.33 a bottle.

"That shows that people coming for half a dozen bottles are choosing wines which they really want and are prepared to spend that bit much more on," said Lewis.

Same-store sales rose 8.4% last year and are up 7.3% in the first 10 weeks of the current year.

Pre-tax profits jumped from £7.4 million to £16 million on sales up 15.6% at £233 million in the year to end-March.

The dividend for the year rises 5% to 10.3p a share. Majestic shares rose 15p, or 5.5%, to 287.5p.