Britvic reports marginal turnaround at Irish operations

Britvic — the British-owned international soft drinks producer — has reported a marginal turnaround in fortunes at its Irish operations.

The company yesterday reported group revenues of £304.3m (€408m) for the first quarter of its current financial year, covering the 12 weeks to the end of December. This represented a 0.4% year-on-year decline.

However, in Ireland —where it significantly upped its presence eight years ago via the purchase of the former soft drinks division of C&C and inherited such well-known brands as Club, MiWadi and Ballygowan — the group said revenue increased by 2.8% on a year-on-year basis.

Regarding Ireland, management said: “There was a decline in third-party brands sold through Counterpoint [the company’s expanded licensed wholesale operation], which is reported in our revenue number, but not our volume and ARP [average realised price] metrics. As a result, our own brand performance was stronger than the reported number compared to the take-home market, as measured by Nielsen, which grew volume and value by 3% and 0.6%, respectively.”

The first-quarter figures bode well for the Irish operations. In the 12 months to the end of September, Britvic Ireland suffered a 6.3% drop in revenues to €162.2m

In Britain, Britvic saw a 1.4% year-on-year revenue decline for the first quarter, while in France a 2.3% annualised rise was noted.

In its international distribution business, Britvic saw quarterly revenues increase by nearly 4% on a year-on-year footing.