Majestic Wine scraps six-bottle rule as part of its new business strategy

Majestic Wine is getting rid of its six-bottle minimum purchase rule from Tuesday (27 October) at its stores and online as well. The move, is part of its new strategy to attract more shoppers, and make the buying experience simpler for them.

Under the new plan, UK's largest specialist retailer of wines, will also introduce customer-friendly initiatives such as free delivery and glasses on hire, along with offering money back, if shoppers are not satisfied.

The move is also aimed at transforming the company from a retailer -- where shoppers visit occasionally to stock up before a major event -- to a mainstream store where shoppers drop in to make regular purchases.

Majestic, however, will continue to offer wines and spirits in bulk and provide 10% to 33% discount on cases with six bottles. The retailer had abolished its six-bottle rule in a few stores during Spring, on an experimental basis. The results were positive and the company decided to extended it across all stores.

The wine retailer, currently operates 211 stores across the UK and France. It started selling wine in 1980 in cases that would hold a minimum of 12 bottles from a warehouse in North London. Although, this proved popular among a few shoppers, eventually they turned to retailers such as Lidl and Aldi, who sold high-quality wine -- irrespective of the number of bottles -- at cheaper rates.

Following this, it reduced its minimum case size from 12 to six in late 2000. However, poor sales in recent years continued and the company may have been forced to rethink its strategy. Majestic's new chief executive, Rowan Gormley, who was roped in to upturn the company believes that Majestic was now set to take on retail grocers.

Gormley said that this step was part of a larger plan to transform the company into a "go-to destination for the best quality wines at the best prices".

"There are now no barriers to shopping at Majestic, the pricing structure is very straightforward and I'm sure our customers will see this as a great move", the CEO explained.