Majestic Wine has appointed Rothschild & Co to work on options for a potential of sale of all its British shops in preparation for a move to become online-only under the Naked Wines brand.

A decision is expected on the plans at its full-year results presentation on 13 June.

The sale of Majestic’s 200 UK stores would represent the culmination of a business reorientation under Rowan Gormley, the new group chief executive installed when Majestic bought Naked for £70 million in 2015.

Last month, he announced that the Majestic name would disappear, with the main company adopting the Naked Wines brand.

Sky News reported that Majestic has made approaches to private equity buyers, which might have an interest in parts of the business.

The Majestic Wine retail arm made sales of £263.8 million in the year to April 2018, more than half the entire group’s sales. But this sales growth lagged behind Naked Wines, which has operations in the US and Australia.

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