As Majestic cements its evolution from wine warehouse to multi-channel drinks group, CEO John Colley explains to Jo Gilbert how Vagabond, Enotria and the core retail estate fit together in a bold new model for UK wine

When John Colley, chief executive of Majestic Wine Group, and Drinks Retailing meet, it’s in a location not typically associated with the nation’s largest specialist wine retailer. Our meeting spot is Vagabond Liverpool Street – the newest of two openings for the brand since the Majestic buyout in 2024 – and we’re surrounded by sleek By the Glass machines and urbanites heading for after-work drinks. It couldn’t be more different from the edge-of-town bricks-and-mortar stores that have, until recently, been Colley’s primary stomping ground.

“Look around and you will see most people are in the 25- 35 age bracket,” Colley notes, as the numbers begin to pick up at around 4pm. “These are Majestic’s future customers.”

From speaking with Colley, it’s clear this focus on capturing consumers at different life stages is a deliberate part of Majestic’s recent moves to imbed itself further in hospitality via the strategic acquisitions of Vagabond and, more recently, Enotria. Through data capture that links different parts of the business, Majestic has access to a pipeline of lifelong customers as they migrate outwards from the city, invest in property and look to fill their (car)boots with wine.

“It’s all about life stage,” Colley says. “When I joined Majestic, supermarkets were doing some crazy stuff and someone said: ‘People aren’t drinking wine anymore.’ If we hadn’t had the focus we do, that could have been true. But people age into the category. We see that clearly now.”

This new era of business confidence is a far cry from where Majestic was back in 2019, when Colley returned after a hiatus with Screwfix owner Kingfisher to find a business “on its knees”. The collapse of the merger with Naked Wines had just hit, and the subsequent buyout from private investment firm Fortress Group offered a lifeline at a crucial time.

Today, it’s clear that Majestic’s rescue by Fortress has paid dividends. The business is now a £0.5bn wine group spanning retail, wholesale and hospitality – though Colley admits the transformation is still unfinished.

“We’ve absolutely got our hands full for the next year, working with not just Enotria, but Vagabond and Majestic’s expansion,” he says. “Enotria was close to administration; we’ll get that to be a thriving company too. Fortress has got a lot of confidence in the team.”

Enter Enotria

The answer to the question on everyone’s lips – what will Enotria look like under Majestic ownership – requires going back to 2016, when Colley first joined the business. Then, he says, the on-trade arm, Majestic Commercial, was propped up by “time-poor, not very knowledgeable customers. I thought, there’s much more to be had here”.

Even in the past few years, Majestic’s use of its 200-plus stores as localised wholesaling hubs has flown under the radar, despite delivering quite a lot of the business’s top-line sales growth. Colley’s decision in 2016 to maximise the on-trade division then became a five-year plan to treble that part of the business in size, with all stock being delivered through the shops and the ecommerce business dealing with customers it couldn’t reach physically.

Here, Colley applied lessons from his time on the Kingfisher board, which he calls “a masterclass in using data, logistics and local hubs to serve trade and retail customers seamlessly”. The approach has transformed the speed and efficiency of distribution at Majestic, creating a model that is both hyper-local and nationally scalable.

“It’s the same principle,” Colley adds. “Fast, convenient service, powered by data, delivered through a physical network that’s close to the customer. That’s how we win.”

Majestic’s April acquisition of Enotria hits the pedal to the metal on the business’s on-trade ambitions. While Enotria continues to operate as a standalone business to Majestic Commercial, it brings new scale and infrastructure to the group, creating a combined on-trade arm that exceeds £200m in turnover. “It gives us far more reach,” Colley explains. “Everything from family-owned pubs in the West Country all the way through to national chains and fine dining. You name it, we cover it.”

Synergies, not sameness

Colley insists the two businesses will remain distinct. Majestic will continue to grow its independent free-trade accounts, while Enotria will still be run as a separate business unit tackling its part of the market. Operational synergies will sit quietly in the background, focused on areas such as insurance, delivery fleets, back-office and IT.

Colley also says rumours that Enotria’s fine-dining wines will flood Majestic’s shelves are misplaced. “We’re very protective over Enotria’s partners. Only if they want to see their products in the shops will that happen,” he says.

Conversely, Majestic’s buying capacity could help Enotria’s competitiveness for entry-level lines, driving economies of scale. “If you’re after entry-point Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc, we buy a lot of it in Majestic. That scale means we can bolt it into Enotria’s business.”

Urban ambitions

Another piece of the puzzle is Vagabond’s new urban winery at Canada Water. Opening on 4 December, the 6,000sq ft site – which includes space to host up to 300 guests – is being billed as the largest of its kind in Europe. Colley admits the project gave him nerves on cost at first. But head winemaker José Quintana’s vision and his wines won him over.

“It’s going to be incredible,” Colley says. “We’re building a cathedral to wine in London. It’s going to be very cool. Very expensive, but very cool.”

Once fully up and running, the site will produce 100,000 bottles a year from English grapes, quadrupling Vagabond’s capacity and supplying Majestic’s other divisions. “We could quite easily sell the wines in Majestic or the on-trade,” Colley says.

The road ahead

Looking back on Majestic’s ill-fated Naked Wines years, Colley says simply: “They didn’t really believe in shops.” He is also clear that without the investment from Fortress, “I absolutely guarantee Majestic would not exist”.

It’s clear Colley is now focused on the future, with the likes of Majestic Retail MD Elizabeth Newman and Jane Masters MW, new head of group product development, helping to spur the business to new heights.

“Now Majestic is a thriving company,” Colley says. “It’s a family. We meet every day; we talk every day about where we are on our journey, and we’re a half-a-billion-pound business. We deserve to be a bit proud of that.”