Poor weather pushes Britvic Q4 revenue down by 8.3%

POOR weather and “very challenging macro-economic conditions” pushed fourth-quarter revenue at Britvic Ireland down by 8.3%, on a year-on-year basis.

On a group-wide basis, the British-headquartered soft drinks company — whose financial year runs to the end of October — said that fourth-quarter revenue was up by 0.3%, year-on-year; with full year revenue rising by 14.6% to just under £1.3 million (€1.5m). The company’s Irish operations — basically comprising of the former soft drinks arm of C&C, which it acquired in 2007 and featuring products like Robinson’s, MiWadi, Ballygowan and Club — however suffered along with the total soft drinks market here.

For the full year, Britvic said that revenue at its Irish division is down by 9.6% on the previous 12 months.

Britvic’s group chief executive, Paul Moody, added: “Our GB, French and international business units have delivered positive volume, price and revenue growth in the full year, despite the continued challenging economic backdrop and poor weather over the summer period. Conditions in Ireland remain difficult.”

Mr Moody said management expects the group to meet expectations with its full-year 2011 financial results.

“Our overall group performance reflects Britvic’s strength in having a diversified portfolio of great brands, a strong innovation programme and our focus on maintaining price discipline,” he said.

Mr Moody said that outside of Britain and Ireland, the company saw “a solid performance” in France and “very encouraging progress” in its international franchise operations.

Three months ago, Britvic’s third-quarter results showed a 15% year-on-year fall in its Irish revenues, on the back of the coldest June for many years.

The company said it was remaining cautious about its full-year outlook due to poor consumer sentiment.