Majestic Wine ups imports ahead of Brexit; reports loss in tough market
By BFN News | 08:36 AM | Thursday 22 November, 2018
Wine merchant Majestic Wine said on Thursday it would import an extra £5-8m worth of stock to ensure it can meet deliveries post-Brexit as it announced a pre-tax loss amid a "tough" retail market and a gloomy outlook.
The company reported a pre-tax loss of £0.2m for the 26 weeks ending 1 October (down from £3.1m the previous year) as increased new customer investment and fixed costs weighed on profits, as previously announced.
"The UK retail market is tough and will continue to be a drag on performance in Retail and Majestic Commercial; whereas we had previously targeted growth, we now expect full-year 2019 adjusted EBIT across these business units to be flat at best versus full-year 2018," the firm said.
The company also expected to see lower profits at its Naked Wine business as it increased its planned investment to £20m or higher compared with the £19m or higher announced in June.
Nonetheless, the company's longer-term expectations remained unchanged despite the short-term headwinds.
"We were planning for tough times and we're investing through tough times because we know that's the route to a more profitable future. As a result, we now have a business that is almost 45% online and over 20% international with both the option, and intention, to invest further in order to drive returns," the firm added.
At 8:36am: (LON:WINE) Majestic Wine PLC share price was -60.5p at 314p
Story provided by StockMarketWire.com