Britvic undertakes second restructuring

REVENUES at the Irish operations of soft drinks manufacturer Britvic have fallen by 5.2% across its latest financial year and the company is to undertake a second restructuring of its business here in as many years.

In a pre-close trading statement — for the 12 months to this week — the British company, whose Irish division basically consists of the old soft drinks division of C&C, Britvic said revenues here were down by 5.2% year-on-year to £179 million (€202m). The figure is a preliminary one and will be clarified when the company publishes its full annual results in early December.

However, yesterday’s statement added that due to continuous price deflation and challenging trading conditions having an negative impact on the Irish operation’s revenue and operating margins — “this year being particularly difficult” — management has had to begin a second restructuring of the business here.

Its previous restructuring — which saw the winding down of three regional distribution centres and the loss of 145 jobs — was only completed last year. It remains unclear if redundancies will play a major role in the current review, but management confirmed yesterday that “employee engagement” has begun, but is still in their early stages.

“Britvic is restructuring its Irish operations, so as to benefit from a future return to favourable market conditions,” management said.

They added that the review will likely result in an impairment charge for the 2010 full-year Britvic Ireland accounts, with this figure likely to be unveiled in December’s final figures.

On a group-wide basis, Britvic said that full-year revenues were up by 14.6%. “We have outperformed key markets, which continue to prove resilient despite the uncertain consumer environment.

“We’re delighted with both the trading performance and integration of Britvic France, and our action in Ireland will put our business model in optimal shape ahead of eventual market recovery,” commented group chief executive Paul Moody.