Whether or not you've done well out of this year's rebound in the stock markets, there's no doubt that most people are cutting back – tightening their belts and learning to make do with less. A staycation instead of a holiday in Tuscany; Primark instead of Marks & Sparks; and a bottle of fizzy cider instead of a magnum of champagne.
So it's no surprise that Majestic Wine Warehouse is selling less champagne – a quarter less than last year, in fact. Surely, that makes this stock the biggest sell on the market?
Well, let's reserve judgment on that for a bit and look at the company's recent performance. 2008 saw the first dip in Majestic's profits since it was floated in 1996. The half year saw profit before tax fall by 25%, though total sales crept up 3.4% (largely as a result of store openings rather than organic growth; like-for-like sales in the five weeks coming up to the results fell by 4.7% [1] .
Full year profits for the year to March 2009 fell 56% - though £5.3m of this was due to a one-off writedown on the value of the French business, Wine and Beer World, which had been hurt by the strength of the euro. (This business addresses the 'booze cruise' market – always highly price sensitive.)
In fact the results weren't that bad once you exclude the one-off item. Pre-tax profits still fell by 22% - but that showed the second half of the year actually improving on the first half, with the decline decelerating. Christmas 2008, in particular, seems to have been a pretty good season, with a 25% rise in sparkling wine sales making up for the champagne shortfall [2] .
The new financial year started well, too, with like-for-like UK sales rising 2% for the ten weeks from 31 March to8 June 2009 [3] .
So far, so good – this is not a retailer in trouble, but just a retailer having a sub-standard year. What has Majestic got that makes it interesting to the investor, then?
Well for a start, it has a fantastic market presence. It has 150 outlets in the UK, but it certainly hasn't saturated the market; it's opening 5-10 stores a year and could probably open more if it could find the right sites. Plus, it has a…
