Majestic Wine has reported a 3.9% increase in profits after drawing in more customers online and through new store openings.

It made £9.2m in pre-tax profits in the 26 weeks to 1 October.

Total sales fell 1.4% to 126m following a “managed reduction” in the wholesale trade. But excluding wholesale activities, sales grew 4.6% to £122.7m with like-for-likes in UK stores up 0.6%. Online sales grew by a faster 14% to represent 9.8% of UK sales.

Majestic opened nine stores during the period, while the number of customers who shopped there in the past 12 months rose 11.2% to 594,000.

“These results, achieved in a challenging economic environment and the wettest summer on record, display the resilience of the Majestic business. I am pleased that so many new customers are choosing to shop with Majestic,” said chief executive Steve Lewis.