Wine retailer Majestic has re-instated its dividend following double digit growth in revenues, despite swinging into the red as acquisition costs and other investment costs pushed it to a loss. In the six months to September 26th, the company saw sales rise 5.7% at its majestic division, although this was dwarfed by its Naked Wines division, which saw a 26.7% uplift. However, the company made a £4.4 million loss after exceptional items and acknowledged that “challenges remain”.
Rowan Gormley, group chief executive, commented: "Our plan is working. We said that we would deliver sustainable growth, not by opening more stores, but by investing in better customer service and better customer retention.
“Both of these are working - sales are up over 10% and the projects driving that sales growth, like nationwide next day delivery, are on time and on budget. “Now that we have built a solid platform for future growth, future cost growth will be much lower.
“We are reiterating our commitment to hitting our goal of delivering £500m sales by 2019, and we believe that will translate into healthy profit growth now that the step change in investment is complete. “We are reinstating the dividend as a signal of our continued confidence in the plan.”
