Britvic revenues at Irish arm fall 5%

Revenues at the Irish operations of international soft drinks group, Britvic fell by over 5% year-on-year in the first half of its current financial year.

Published yesterday, the Britain-based group’s interim figures — covering the 28 weeks to the middle of April — showed overall revenue growth of 4.7% to £670.7m (€826.4m), with sales up in its British, French and international arms. Ireland was its only regional division to show a drop in sales. Britvic Ireland — which had seen 2% sales growth in the first quarter — saw a 5.2% year-on-year revenue reduction to £64.2m for the half year.

“Market conditions in Ireland have remained difficult, with consumers continuing to seek value amid a competitive trading environment. Modest volume growth has been outweighed by the impact of promotional activity and channel mix,” the company said.

However, it added that it has gained “a small amount” of value share, with a small volume share loss, in the take-home channel here.

On a group footing, Britvic’s management described a period — which saw pre-tax profit rise by 21% to £45.3m and adjusted earnings per share grow by 17% to 14.5p — as one of “solid progress”.

“We have delivered strong revenue, profit and margin growth in the first half of the year and our cost-saving programme continues to gain traction across our business,” said group chief executive Simon Litherland.