Majestic Wine furthers expansion with two new openings

Majestic Wine has furthered its expansion plans after opening two new stores in the same week for the first time in a decade. The wine retailer returned to Chippenham on 24 October, four years after its former store in the town was closed down by previous management. After the group opened its new 4,775 sq ft store at the Old Foundry in Chippenham, it then opened the doors to its largest store in Wales and the second-biggest in its entire UK portfolio of 207 shops. Majestic said the openings represent a “significant landmark” for the group. The last time the retailer launched two stores in the same week was in November 2013, with openings in Cheadle and Tenterden. It added that the Chippenham and Monmouth stores will also support its “rapidly growing” B2B division, Majestic Commercial. Majestic has now launched four new stores in 2023/24, following openings in Rugby, in August, and in Newark, in September. It will open a smaller format in London’s Crouch End in November as part of plans to grow its store portfolio at a rate of one new store per month. The accelerated expansion strategy comes after Majestic opened five new shops in 2022/23, in Haywards Heath, Godalming, Stafford, Preston and a smaller high-street format in Harpenden. Majestic CEO John Colley said: “Opening two stores in a week for the first time in 10 years underlines our ongoing commitment to physical, experiential retail, and offers a clear sign of how far we have progressed as a business under the ownership of Fortress. “We always talk about our store colleagues as our secret sauce at Majestic - and opening more stores that provide more customers across the UK with access to our highly qualified experts and unique, quality wines is a strategy that is working. We are proud to be accelerating that pipeline of new store openings ahead of Christmas and are excited about becoming a part of even more communities across the UK in the coming months.”