Exclusive: Majestic Wine quits Calais as Brexit booze rules hammer sales

Retail Week can reveal that Majestic is closing its two stores in the French port today (Monday), blaming changes to the duty-free alcohol allowance for battering the economics of the business. 

Twenty staff have been impacted by the decision, although Retail Week understands a number of those have been offered alternative roles within the group.

Prior to the UK’s exit from the EU – and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic – the two Majestic stores raked in £10m in annual sales and are understood to have contributed around £1m to the retailer’s bottom line.

But revenues have slumped to just a fraction of that level since April 2020, pushing Majestic’s Calais business into the red. 

A perfect storm

The stores have been closed for much of the past two years amid a perfect storm of the Covid-19 crisis and the new post-Brexit rules. 

UK residents were previously able to transport as much alcohol as they wanted across the English Channel, provided it was for personal consumption. 

But since the UK left the EU, Brits have only been allowed to bring a personal allowance of 42 litres of beer or 18 litres of non-sparkling wine – around 24 standard bottles – into the country from Europe. 

Majestic, which had reaffirmed its commitment to Calais last September, conceded that the stores were “no longer commercially viable”.  

A spokesman for the retailer told Retail Week: “Due to changes to the duty-free alcohol personal allowance, following the UK’s exit from the EU, we have taken the difficult decision to close both Les Celliers De Calais SAS stores. 

“They were designed for a very different operating environment; built around helping our customers maximise their budgets and enjoy our great wines, beers and spirits duty free. Regretfully, since the changes to allowance post Brexit, these stores are no longer commercially viable.” 

Details of the closure plan emerged as Majestic prepares to file its latest financial results with Companies House.   

The documents, covering the 12 months to March 2021, are expected to reveal an £11m improvement in EBITDA within its core UK business. Majestic enjoyed a 24% uplift in UK sales to £377m during the first year of the pandemic, with retail and online sales surging 35%. 

The booze specialist, which was acquired by US private equity firm Fortress in December 2019, opened five new stores during the period and refurbished 40 other locations. Majestic said further funds had been set aside by Fortress going into 2022 to fuel its “ambitious store opening programme”.