Sales corks popping at Majestic

MAJESTIC Wine breathed some life into consumer confidence today, reporting a healthy leap in sales in the run-up to the festive season, fuelled by a thirst for classic French and New World wines.

Like-for-like sales at the retailer headed by chief executive Tim How grew 7.4% for the eight weeks of Christmas trading from 6 November to New Year's Eve, in line with sales growth at the half-year to September.

How said: 'From our business perspective, there has been no let-up in consumer confidence. We, like other retailers, have seen a pick-up in champagne sales.'

Wine-lovers spent £133.50 per visit to its stores over the period against £129 the same time last year as demand picked up for Bordeaux reds averaging £9.99 each.

Strong growth came also from the wines of Chile, South Africa and New Zealand, outpacing Australia as Britain's favoured New World tipple. Majestic's board was particularly cheered by a widening of its regular customer base to 320,000, up 10.1% on a year ago.