Majestic Wine to close some stores and rebrand under Naked brand in bid to focus online

'Where we have no choice but to close stores we will aim to minimise job losses by migration into Naked,' says boss Rowan Gormley

The UK’s largest specialist wine retailer makes 45 per cent of its sales online and 20 per cent overseas, particularly in the US and Australia (Reuters)

Majestic is to close some of its 200 UK stores and rebrand as Naked Wines as it seeks to focus on its online business.

The UK’s largest specialist wine retailer makes 45 per cent of its sales online and 20 per cent overseas, particularly in the US and Australia.

Like many British retailers it has been faced with declining sales on the high street and intense competition from online sellers who have lower costs.

Majestic bought online subscription wine firm Naked in 2015 and will now rebrand all of its operations under that name. It is not clear which outlets will close.

Rowan Gormley, Majestic’s chief executive and the founder of Naked, said: “Where we have no choice but to close stores we will aim to minimise job losses by migration into Naked.

“Therefore we have taken a decision to focus all of our capital and energies into delivering the long-term potential of Naked, and releasing value from Majestic.

“Our plans for doing this are well advanced and we look forward to sharing the final details in June.”

The company’s share price crashed 12 per cent after the announcement on Monday.

Majestic said it still expects to hit its £500m sales target for the year but will consider whether to pay its dividend to shareholders in June.

The restructuring plan is expected to cost around £10m this financial year. An additional £6m will be spent on investment in Naked next year, on top of £20m that had already been earmarked.

In a statement on Monday, Majestic said: “Following the acquisition of Naked in April 2015, the Group embarked on a transformation plan to broaden our sales footprint outside of the UK, drive growth through investment in customer relationships and increase our digital capability.

“As a result we are now almost 45 per cent online and over 20 per cent international and have significant growth potential driven, in particular, by the US business.

“We are now moving towards the next phase of the Group's evolution in which we will tightly focus on the significant Naked growth opportunity.