Majestic Wine

Majestic Wine

Company type	Private Company
Industry	Wine retailing
Genre	Liquor firm
Founded	1980 (1980)
Founder	Sheldon Graner
Headquarters	Watford, Hertfordshire , United Kingdom
Number of locations	200 in United Kingdom (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland)
Key people	John Colley, CEO
Products	Wine, champagne, spirits
Services	Free glassware hiring, free wine tasting, delivery service from local stores, 'no quibble' returns guarantee
Revenue	£382.5m (12 months to 28/Mar/2022)
Operating income	£24.8m (12 months to 28/Mar/2022)
Owner	Fortress Investment Group
Number of employees	1,350
Website	majestic.co.uk

Majestic Wine is the UK's largest specialist wine retailer. The company employs more than 1,300 employees nationwide, and operates more than 200 stores across the United Kingdom. The business is headquartered in Watford and has a distribution centre in Hemel Hempstead.

History

1980 to 1999

Majestic Vintners was founded by Sheldon Graner in 1980. Prior to Majestic Vintners, Graner gained work as a merchandiser with the John Lewis group. The initial design logo for the company was based on a definitive set of King George V postage stamps of 1929. During the 1970s, laws regarding selling alcohol were restrictive in the United Kingdom. Majestic Vinters offered wine tastings and sold wine by the case to comply with the laws.

Graner opened his first wine warehouse in Harringay, North London, in 1980, hiring Tony Mason to manage the day-to-day running of the store. A second shop launched in Battersea in May 1981. A few months later, the group called in receivers and Majestic's assets were bought by Giles Clarke.

In August 1987, Majestic acquired Liquor Barn, a chain of 104 stores in California and Arizona as part of its US expansion plans. Following the disposal of the American business, Majestic Wine was sold for £15 million to investors in 1989.

In 1986, Tony 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 in a leveraged buyout, and merged under the Majestic Wine Warehouses brand as a private company. Headquartered in Watford, Hertfordshire, under the leadership of Tim How, Majestic Wine became a public company in 1996, floating on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

2000 to 2019

• April 2000 – Majestic started selling wine online for the first time through majestic.co.uk.
• October 2001 – Majestic acquired Les Celliers de Calais, whose business was based around the British cross-channel trade. The stores were rebranded initially as Wine & Beer World, and then Majestic Wine Calais in 2013. Majestic closed its two remaining stores in Calais and Coquelles in 2021, stating that the stores were “no longer commercially viable” following changes to the duty-free alcohol personal allowance after the UK’s exit from the EU.
• 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.
• February 2015 – Majestic announced the departure of chief executive Steve Lewis.
• April 2015 – Majestic acquired Naked Wines for up to £70 million, and appointed Naked's founder Rowan Gormley as group chief executive.
• December 2019 – Majestic Wine and Naked Wines split after private equity firm Fortress Investment Group struck a deal to buy the Majestic business, including its 200 stores and on-trade arm Majestic Commercial, for £95m. Fortress re-hired John Colley, who had previously served as managing director of Majestic's retail business, as Chief Executive. Following the split, Majestic Wine plc was renamed Naked Wines plc. Effectively, the previous shareholders of Majestic became shareholders of Naked Wines, as Majestic moved back into private ownership.

Under Fortress ownership

• January 2020 – New chief executive John Colley restructured his executive team, with managing director Josh Lincoln and chief customer officer Natalie Thng leaving the business. Former Tesco beers, wines and spirits boss Robert Cooke was promoted from buying and merchandising director into the role of chief commercial officer, while Majestic veterans Keith Blessley and Nick Workman were named retail director and IT director respectively.
• May 2020 – Majestic Wine extended its relationship with Deliveroo in the United Kingdom, aiming to better reach customers staying at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the deal, 80 stores were able to fulfil Deliveroo orders from local customers.
• June 2020 - Majestic confirmed a surge in sales during lockdown and said it served more than 150,000 new customers through its home delivery service while its stores were closed. The business also revealed plans to grow sales by 10% by 2025, roll out new ranges, improve staff training and relaunch its website as part of Colley's strategy to "get back to what we do best".
• November 2020 - Majestic debuted its new brand, including a venture into fine wine at its new store in Beckenham. The new shop is located inside a listed pavilion originally built in 1928.
• June 2021 - Majestic launched its Shop Local online proposition, aiming to appeal to e-commerce customers by allowing them a live, real time view of stock available in their local store and place orders for same-day click and collect or home delivery.
• September 2021 - Majestic launched its Wine Club subscription proposition, described as providing customers with exclusive new wines every quarter, video content from producers, and bespoke food pairing recipes.
• December 2021 - Majestic closed its two remaining stores in Calais, blaming changes to the duty-free alcohol allowance following the UK's exit from the European Union. Prior to the referendum, UK residents were able to transport as much alcohol as they wanted across the English Channel, provided it was for personal consumption. After the UK left the EU, the personal allowance was cut to 42 liters of beer or 18 liters of non-sparkling wine. As a result, Majestic said the stores were “no longer commercially viable”.
• December 2022 - Majestic published its results for the 2021/22 financial year, which included a 1.4% increase in revenues to £382.5 million and an 8% uptick in pre-tax profit to £17.3 million.
• April 2023 - Majestic opened the doors to its first small format store in Harpenden. The 1,800 sq ft store was half the size of an average Majestic shop and stocked a reduced selection of around 600 wines.

External links

• Official website

• Lay & Wheeler website
• Vinotheque website
• Naked Wines website