Majestic Wine’s buying director sees rising sales of ‘affordable’ magnums and expects more of them to adorn Christmas dinner tables and parties this year. Reporting by Laura Seal and Chris Mercer.
Majestic Wine toasted a share price rise after returning to profit in the first half of its financial year, reporting earnings of £3 million for the 26 weeks to 2 October versus a loss of £4.4 million in the same half of last year.
And looking ahead to the all-important Christmas 2017 selling season, the high street retailer expects to sell more wine in magnums than in the past.
Majestic said that it has already sold nearly five times more magnums this year than it did in 2016.
It sees a growing trend towards ‘affordable’ magnums, according to buying director Richard Weaver.
‘Historically with magnums we’ve seen sales in the fine wine sector as they’ve been more expensive wines,’ he told Decanter.com today (23 November).
‘However, we’re now seeing this trend with affordable magnums, sold between the £10 and £20 price mark.
‘We’ve seen growth for social events, beginning with Provence rosé magnums which were popular for summer events.’
Majestic has also seen growth for magnums of Portuguese red wines, as well as Nyetimber English sparkling wine and Champagne, Weaver said.
‘Constrained economic growth has pushed the trend towards entertaining at home, leading to more occasion-driven buying,’ said Weaver.
‘[Magnums] are sold as a centrepiece wine for occasions, bought for sharing.’
