LONDON (ShareCast) - People reined back their spending on drinks early this year after splashing out at Christmas, hitting sales at Majestic Wine, although the retailer still increased its dividend.

Majestic said challenging trading conditions resulted in a 0.1% fall in UK like-for-like sales in the year to March 31st, although total sales rose 1.4% to £278.2m as the group opened 13 shops during the year.

The group increased pre-tax profit slightly to £23.8m from £23.7m a year ago and boosted its total dividend to 16p from 15.8p a year ago.

Majestic succeeded in lifting its number of active customers who made purchases during the year by 2.9% to 643,000 and increased the average spend per deal to £129 from £128.

An average bottle of still wine at Majestic now costs about £7.94 compared to £7.56 a year ago and sales of rosé from Provence, where Majestic now holds 47% of market share, increased 84%, while sales of Malbec from Argentina, Chile and France lifted by half.

Chief Executive Steve Lewis said: "Majestic made good operational progress in the last year and despite the difficult trading environment delivered a solid performance. 2015 will be a year of increased investment to ensure we have the right infrastructure."

PW

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