Britvic Ireland to shed 100 jobs

BRITVIC Ireland, whose brands include Ballygowan, Mi Wadi and Robinsons is to make 100 of its staff redundant in a restructuring of its Irish operations.

Thu, 06 Jan, 2011 - 00:00

Niamh Hennessy

This follows a commercial review of its operations in Ireland which the company said is designed to “better meet changed customer needs and to drive growth in a dramatically altered soft drinks market”.

The company said it will restructure Britvic’s sales and merchandising teams and also provide for increased investment in new product development (NPD) and marketing.

It said additional in-market and marketing investment is required to drive growth. Existing sales and merchandising roles will be “reconfigured” and staff training will be enhanced.

The 100 redundancies are being sought nationally, largely across the group’s commercial teams.

Britvic Ireland managing director Andrew Richards said the company has been engaged with staff and customers to assess how best to drive growth in a “much-altered market”.

“This is critical, given a structural shift in the market over the past three years that has included volume growth in the grocery channel, contraction in the licensed and impulse categories, increased centralised purchasing, and more streamlined distribution and logistics.

“I very much regret the unavoidable loss of jobs and I am grateful to departing staff for their contribution over the years. Britvic management will remain actively engaged with staff and their union representatives as these changes are implemented over the coming month,” he said.

Britvic employs around 730 people on the island of Ireland and has operations in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Thurles and Belfast.

It said it remains committed to driving growth in the soft drinks market.

The company has invested €7.5 million in its manufacturing capacity in Dublin and has invested €10m in new IT systems. Last month it opened a new customer call centre in Thurles.

The drinks firm is pushing on with plans to launch the popular US drink, Mountain Dew, in March or April next year in Ireland.