Ireland remains ‘challenging market’ for Britvic as sales volumes fall 20%

IRELAND remains a challenging market for soft drinks producer Britvic, the company has revealed in a trading update for the third quarter of its financial year.

Although group-wide, Britvic revenues grew 6% year-on-year to £249 million (€290.3m) for the three months to the end of June, sales volumes for its Irish operations, for the same period, were down by just over 20%. When measured in euros, revenues fell by 24.3%, year-on-year.

In May, when Britvic issued its first-half results, chief executive Paul Moody said management was satisfied with its Irish division, which includes brands such as Ballygowan, Cidona and Mi-Wadi and came about by the acquisition of C&C’s soft drinks division for €250m in 2007.