Majestic Wine swings to loss on acquisition, but reinstates dividend

Majestic Wine reported a pre-tax loss for the six months to 26 September, mainly on the back of acquisition costs, but reinstated its dividend.

The company made a £4.4m loss compared to a £4.3m profit in the first half of last year, as it recognised £4.5m of adjusted items, largely relating to the Naked Wines acquisition.

Revenue rose to £205.6m from £181.6m and the company reintroduced an interim dividend of 1.5p per share which it said was an expression of its confidence that cash generation will continue in the second half of the year.

Like-for-like sales in the group’s retail division were up 5.7%, while sales in the commercial business were up 1.2%. Sales at Naked Wines, meanwhile, surged 26.7.

Chief executive Rowan Gormley said: “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.”

The company said the transformation plan to deliver future sustained growth in shareholder value is on track and reiterated its commitment to hitting its goal of delivering £500m sales by 2019. It said this was likely to translate into healthy profit growth now that the step change in investment is complete.

At 0915 GMT, the shares were up 3.2% to 311.52p.