Majestic Wine has announced a 27 per cent jump in profits, along with plans for a major expansion programme.
The retailer, which currently has 165 stores across the UK along with an online shop, a commercial division and three outlets in French ports, said group pre-tax profits were up by 26.6 per cent to 20.3m in the year to March 28.
Like-for-like sales in UK retail stores increased by 5.3 per cent, while total sales were up 10.3 per cent to 257.3m.
Ads displaying the company's top-of-the-range bottles appear to be having an effect. The company's figures show that while people are buying less wine per visit, they are spending more on higher quality bottles. Average spend per transaction over the 52 weeks declined by 2.5 per cent to 126, but average spend per bottle increased from 6.56 to 6.94. Sales of the company's fine wines, priced at 20 and over, increased by 23.7 per cent.
In its report, Majestic Wine also announced an aggressive expansion plan. The firm says it is confident of being able to significantly increase the size of its estate to at least 330 retail stores.
Steve Lewis, chief executive, said: "We are delighted that so many new customers have chosen to shop with Majestic and are encouraged that all parts of the business are showing strong progress."
