Majestic Wine chief Steve Lewis shows he has a nose for business

Having worked at the group since 1985, the 45-year-old was appointed boss of the 153-store retailer on August 1, 2008, just weeks before the global banking collapse precipitated the deepest recession in decades.

He knew that something was not right. "I came back from my summer holidays and said to the finance director: 'Something's going on here'," says the affable wine merchant.

But the bearded Mr Lewis – who looks like a hybrid of rockers Pete Townsend from The Who, Mike Rutherford from Genesis and Jimmy Nail – has spent the last 15 months attempting to turn the economic slowdown into a virtue for Majestic.

The financial results have not been great. Over the year to March 30, pre-tax profits fell by 55.8pc to £7.4m as poor economic conditions and a write-down of Majestic's French business took their toll.

However, in the week that high street rival Threshers collapsed into administration, it is impossible to argue that Mr Lewis has done anything but a good job at steering Majestic on a safe course.

Like-for-like sales over the 10 weeks to June 8, the most recent period for which Majestic reported, were up by 2pc.

Majestic has always been a curious beast. It is a "specialist" in that it only sells wine by the case, it attracts middle-class shoppers and its stores are located away from main high streets. However, it is also part of the mainstream. It sells 25m bottles of wine a year (at an average price of £6.36 compared to the UK average of just over £4) and is likely to grow to over 250 stores in the coming years.

We meet at Majestic's Clapham South store, based in an art deco cinema that was opened by actress Gracie Fields in 1936. It is one of the highest turnover shops in the Majestic estate and it is where Mr Lewis started his career in the mid-1980s.

He explains that by concentrating on high levels of customer service, and by selling well-sourced wine at competitive prices, Majestic has managed to push through the recession. In sticking to these principles it has also avoided the price war between supermarkets and high street stores that was one of the factors behind Threshers' demise.

"My focus has been on the quality of the staff and training. It is about product knowledge and making the stores as interesting and vibrant as possible," he says.

However, Mr Lewis has had to make concessions, and last month he altered a key plank of Majestic's strategy. Ever since it launched, Majestic has had a "12-bottle-minimum" rule for shoppers. Not only did this increase the average spend, but it attracted serious wine buyers. In September Mr Lewis halved the minimum purchase to six bottles.

Some observers speculated that this was a knee-jerk move designed to stimulate sales over the short-term. Some thought that Majestic was destroying its unique selling point.

Mr Lewis says that this is nonsense. The point, he says, was to make Majestic more accessible and bring customers into the store more regularly.

Research showed that half of the chain's database of 400,000 customers only shop with Majestic once a year. Many of them use it to stock up for "events" such as barbecues or parties and buy wine from supermarkets for the rest of the year.

Anecdotally, it has been a success. People are stopping on their way back from work and walking home with a case of six bottles under their arm, Mr Lewis says. "Clearly we wouldn't have done this if we didn't think it would be a success," he adds.

Majestic has also recently launched a two-hour wine course covering how wine is made, how to taste it and which foods go with which bottle. Again, it is about increasing accessibility.

Majestic provides an interesting barometer for Britons' wine-buying habits.

Champagne sales are down and French wine, in general, is struggling. The latter accounts for 37pc of Majestic's turnover, twice the UK average. However, sales of New World wines are growing massively.

Majestic has reduced the amount of French wine it stocks in recent years. Currency fluctuations are partly to blame as the strong euro has caused prices to rise. A bottle of Pouilly Fumé, for example, that was £5.99 a few years ago is now £9.99. New World producers are also better at marketing themselves than the French, which has helped get themselves shelf space.

Mr Lewis says that Majestic will enter Christmas (when it sees a third of its sales) "from a position of strength". He believes that the chain will weather the downturn.

"This is my third recession at Majestic and I know what to do. What is happening in this recession is that good retailers have upped their game. What this recession is finding out is the poorer retailers with too much debt and bad management," he says.

"You don't batten down the hatches. You trade your way out of them."

Steve Lewis's CV

Age 45

Lives London and Hampshire

Education Bournemouth Grammar School, University College London (UCL) studied Modern History

Hobbies/interests Family, the countryside, food and wine, Arsenal FC

Favourite wine Rioja Prado Enea Muga