Majestic Wine sales rise over Christmas

Majestic Wine posted a rise in group sales and margin over the Christmas period thanks to a solid performance from Naked Wines, as it said profit for the year should be in line with market consensus.

In an update for the 10 weeks to the end of December 2018, the company said sales growth accelerated to 6.8% from 3.2% in the same period a year ago, while the trading gross margin increased by 0.4%. On an underlying basis, sales growth accelerated to 6.3% from 4.1%.

Majestic said Naked Wines had a "great" Christmas, delivering both sales growth and gross margin expansion across all markets. Total sales at Naked were up 15.9%, with sales in the UK, US and Australia up 12.2%, 21% and 14.8%, respectively.

The retail division saw sales grow just 1.5% year-on-year as it experienced difficult trading conditions amid economic uncertainty and weak consumer confidence, with gross margins down 1.2 percentage points year-on-year in "a very promotional market".

Meanwhile, sales in the commercial business were 3.5% higher.

Despite a more challenging than expected Christmas period, the group still expects to report adjusted pre-tax profit for the year in line with current market consensus of £11.7m.

Chief executive Rowan Gormley said: "As we said in November, consumer behaviour is changing and we're seeing a revolution in retail. We think there will be winners and losers, and we believe we have what it takes to be one of the winners. We are uniquely placed, with the people, data and skills in place to succeed despite the headwinds we are seeing.

"While trading has been challenging over the Christmas period, the trends we reported in November are the same (namely strong growth in our overseas markets and our digital propositions but headwinds for our UK Retail stores). We look forward to setting out more of our future plans for the group, including the retail business with our full year results in June."

At 1100 GMT, the shares were down 0.2% to 249.50p.