Majestic Wine stronger than ever

The wine warehouse chain goes from strength to strength and it is launching a share buyback scheme to mop up surplus cash. Much depends on Christmas but there is every reason to expect seasonal cheer.

Morningstar.co.uk Editors 13 November, 2006 | 12:00PM
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The wine warehouse chain goes from strength to strength and it is launching a share buyback scheme to mop up surplus cash. Much depends on Christmas but there is every reason to expect seasonal cheer.

Majestic Wine reported pretax profits up from £5.5m to £6.5m in the 26 weeks to 26 September. Total sales rose from £80.8m to £88.3m, helped by an increase in the number of outlets from 125 a year ago to 133, with UK like-for-like sales 6.2% ahead.

This good showing has continued into the second half with comparable sales running 4.3% ahead in the latest five weeks. Chief executive Tim How points to strong sales growth in wines from the Loire, Spain, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. Champagne and rose wine sales were also strong.

The interim dividend is raised by 21% from 1.9p to 2.3p. Even so, there is enough cash floating around to launch a £20m share buyback over the next few months.

Despite increased competition from supermarkets, more customers are visiting Majestic stores and spending more when they do. The average spend per transaction has risen from £115 to £121 and the price of the average bottle bought has edged up from £5.54 to £5.66.

Crucially, sales of wine at more than £20 a bottle continue to show good growth and were up 33% on last year. There are now fine wine display areas in 20 stores.

Three new stores opened in the latest period, at Bicester, East Molesey and Cheam. Leamington Spa opened at the end of September while Lincoln and Huddersfield follow this month. Further openings are planned in Dulwich, Sonning, Aberdeen and Colchester.

The shares added 10p to 324.5p by late morning but they have still not regained their peak of 336p in April. For a company of this quality the fundamentals are attractive, with a forward PE of 16.4 and a prospective yield of 2.9%.

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