Majestic Wine MD Lincoln exits as new boss Colley shakes up exec team

Retail Week can reveal that Lincoln and chief customer officer Natalie Thng have both exited the booze specialist following the senior leadership shake-up.

Majestic has poached Britvic HR director Suzanne Kielty as its new people director and has also made a raft of internal promotions as part of the reshuffle.

Former Tesco beers, wines dspirits boss Robert Cooke, who joined Majestic as buying and merchandising director last April, has taken on the role of chief commercial officer, while Majestic veterans Keith Blessley and Nick Workman have been promoted to retail director and director of IT respectively.

Majestic is expected to name a new chief customer officer in due course, but Lincoln will not be directly replaced, with Colley assuming the role of chief executive.

Colley was initially named as executive chair when he returned to Majestic in August – two years years after quitting to take the reins at Hobbycraft – following Majestic’s takeover by US private equity group Fortress.

Earlier this month, Majestic toasted an “impressive performance” during the crucial Christmas trading period, as like-for-like sales increased 4.3% in the three months to December 30.

Colley said: “2020 at Majestic will be a pivotal year, as we celebrate our 40th year and begin the process of building for the future - under new private ownership. We’ve started well, with a superb Christmas performance, and are now preparing for our next chapter with a new strategy.

“Ensuring we have the right leadership team in place, with the right skillset, to deliver our future business plans is crucial to the success of Majestic this year, and beyond. That is why we have acted to make these recent changes to the retail board. I am very very excited about the future.”