Majestic Wine said Italy’s prosecco was the sparkling wine of choice this Christmas, as consumers left their shopping till the last minute.
The wine warehouse chain also said it planned to open a similar number of stores next year to the 16 planned for 2012-13, but a marginal slowdown in its sales growth led City analysts to downgrade their profits forecasts for the year to March.
Chief executive Steve Lewis said sales of prosecco surged by 20% to account for 45% of its total sparkling wine revenues.
He said: “Prosecco is the real story with sparkling wine.”
Lewis added that while sales of cava were up, sales of champagne were flat. The best-selling wine at Majestic over Christmas was New Zealand’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
The retailer’s sales at stores open at least a year rose by 1.1% between November 13 and December 31.
Lewis said “many consumers left their shopping until the very last moment”, as they had a full weekend to shop before Christmas Day on the Tuesday.
But Investec downgraded Majestic’s annual profit forecasts to £23.6 million and sales growth to just 0.75%, predicting a “difficult” January to March.
The busiest week for online orders at the retailer started on December 10, which was later than 2011 and reflected shoppers’ greater confidence in deliveries arriving on time.
