Majestic Wine

Majestic Wine plc
Public company (AIM:MJW)
Industry Wine retailing
Founded 1981
Founders Giles Clarke, Esme Johnstone
Headquarters Watford, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 211 in United Kingdom; 2 in France
Key people
 Rowan Gormley, CEO
Revenue £284.5m (12 months to 30/Mar/2015)[1]
£18.4m (12 months to 30/Mar/2015)[1]
Subsidiaries Majestic Wine Warehouses Ltd, Lay & Wheeler Ltd, WBI Ltd and Vinotheque Holdings Ltd, Naked Wines International
Website http://majestic.co.uk/
Majestic Wine Warehouse, West Kirby

Majestic Wine plc is the United Kingdom's largest specialist retailer of wine. The group's operating companies include:

  • Majestic Wine Warehouses Ltd, the main retail operation of the United Kingdom
  • Lay & Wheeler, a fine wine and en primeur specialist
  • Les Celliers de Calais (trading as Majestic Wine Calais) with two stores in northern France
  • Naked Wines, a customer funded, international online wine retailer

Early history

Majestic Vintners was founded by Sheldon Graner in 1980. Graner gained his experience as a merchandiser with the John Lewis group, and coupled this with his passion and hobby as a wine broker/trader to set up Majestic. He called the business 'Majestic' after his other passion, collecting early postage stamps, especially those of Kings Edward VII and George V.

The initial design logo for the company was based on a definitive set of King George V postage stamps of 1929.

In the end of the 1970s, wine could only be bought through off licences or specialist wine retailers, usually in city centres, and only during limited hours. Using his merchandising expertise, Graner conceived the idea of selling wine throughout the day via a warehouse, with a minimum purchase of twelve bottles (one case) to comply with licensing laws at the time. Another innovation was that individual wines could be tasted before buying.

Graner opened his first wine warehouse in Harringay, North London,[2] in 1980, under the management of Tony Mason, brought in by Graner to manage the day to day activities. The second store was opened in Battersea in May 1981. In the middle of 1981, the group called in receivers. Majestic's assets were bought from the receivers by Giles Clarke[3]

In August 1987, Majestic acquired Liquor Barn, a chain of 104 stores in California and Arizona.[4] Following the disposal of the business based in America, Majestic Wine was sold for £15 million to investors in 1989. Clarke went on to work for Pet City.

In 1986, Mason set up Wizard Wine under the same concept, which in 1987 was purchased by retailer Bejam. After Bejam was purchased by rival Iceland in January 1989, Mason and partners John Apthorp (now retired) and Tim How (CEO until 2008) bought Wizard Wine from the heavily indebted Iceland.

In September 1991, Wizard Wine purchased Majestic Wine PLC in a leveraged buyout, and merged under the Majestic Wine Warehouses brand as a private company.[5] Headquartered in Watford, Hertfordshire, under the leadership of Tim How (CEO until 2008), Majestic Wine became a public company in 1996, floating on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Development and expansion

  • April 2000 – Majestic.co.uk launched, offering customers an online service.
  • October 2001 – Majestic acquired Les Celliers de Calais, whose business was based around the British cross channel trade. Rebranded initially as Wine & Beer World, and since 2013 as Majestic Wine Calais there are now two stores in Calais and Coquelles following the closures of branches in Le Havre and Cherbourg.[6]
  • July 2003 – Majestic opened their first temperature controlled fine wine centre at St. John's Wood store.
  • October 2005 – Launched Gift Solutions, an online service designed to allow customers to send gifts of less than twelve bottles. The company's 13th consecutive annual rise in turnover was recorded, with profits of £13.2m.[7]
  • March 2009 – Majestic acquired the privately owned companies: Lay & Wheeler Ltd, WBI Ltd and Vinotheque Holdings Ltd as the fine wine specialist arm of Majestic Wine plc.[8]
  • June 2009 – Majestic published company report stating that the administrative costs had increased by £6 million from £10 million, head office staffing increased by 10%. Store staffing increased by a little over 1%. The increase in store numbers means that the store staffing increase is actually a real terms decrease.
  • September 2009 – Majestic reduced its in store minimum purchase from twelve bottles to six bottles.[9]
  • June 2012 – The minimum purchase for online orders and deliveries reduced from twelve to six bottles.[10]
  • February 2015 – Majestic announced the departure of chief executive Steve Lewis.[11]
  • April 2015 – Majestic acquired Naked Wines for up to £70 million, and appointed Naked's founder Rowan Gormley as chief executive.[12]

Today

Majestic Wine Warehouses operates as a wine retailer, selling a mixture of wine, champagne and spirits. Majestic's stores offer customers free tasting, free delivery and free glass hire.[13] Majestic Wine currently has 211 stores in the United Kingdom.[14]

The company's chairman is Phil Wrigley, and its chief executive is Rowan Gormley.

In June 2016, Majestic Wine announced a double digit sales boost since the purchase of Naked Wines.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 "Full Year Results | Majestic Wine". Investors.majestic.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  2. ↑ Majestic's first store was in Colina Mews, Harringay. Majestic's website mistakenly refers to this as Wood Green, the boundary of Wood Green is about a half mile further north.
  3. ↑ About Us: National Council - C Giles Clarke Archived 2009-02-25 at the Wayback Machine. Learning & Skills Council
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090225204322/http://www.lsc.gov.uk/aboutus/organisation/councilmembers/C_Giles_Clarke.htm. Archived from the original on 2009-02-25. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ "Company History | Majestic Wine". Investors.majestic.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  6. ↑ 20 Oct 2001 (2001-10-20). "Majestic entry | FMCG News | The Grocer". M.thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  7. ↑ Growing Business Success Stories - Majestic Wines: Tim How Archived 2010-12-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "Majestic snaps up Lay & Wheeler". Decanter. 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  9. ↑ "Majestic Wine halves minimum bottle requirement after recession cuts profits in two". Telegraph. 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  10. ↑ "Majestic Wine cuts minimum delivery to six bottles - BBC News". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  11. ↑ "Majestic Wine chief Steve Lewis steps down". Harpers.co.uk. 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  12. ↑ Ruddick, Graham (2015-04-10). "Majestic Wine 'buys' a new boss with acquisition of Naked Wine". Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  13. ↑ "Stores - About Us - Majestic Wine". Majestic.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  14. ↑ "Business Overview | Majestic Wine". Investors.majestic.co.uk. 2016-01-23. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  15. ↑ "Majestic Wine sales boosted by Naked". FT.com. 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
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