Majestic Wine has reported a 117% increase in pre-tax profit to £16m in its full year results as its minimum order change drove volume.

For the year ending March 29, the wine specialist reported total sales up 15.6% to £233.2m, including £12.4m from Lay & Wheeler, the fine wine retailer it bought in March 2009.

Like-for-like sales in the UK were up 8.4%.

The retailer’s move to a six bottle minimum order, from 12, meant the number of customers who made purchases in the last 12 months went up 54,000 to 472,000. Average spend per transaction is 4% down at £129 but transaction numbers are up 14.6% to 1.7 million.

Steve Lewis, chief executive, said: “We are very encouraged by our ability to attract new customers which will allow us to continue to grow our market share.  While the UK economic outlook remains uncertain, we believe that Majestic is well positioned for future growth.”

In the 10 weeks from March 30 to June 7, like-for-like sales were up 7.3%.

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