Ballygowan and MiWadi owner Britvic takes Covid hit to Irish revenues

Robust performance in at-home sales offset by decline in hospitality sector sales due to Covid restrictions

Ballygowan owner Britvic saw its Irish revenues fall, due to Covid restrictions, in its latest financial year

Ballygowan and MiWadi owner Britvic has said its Irish operations saw a fall in full-year revenues, with Covid restrictions on the hospitality and foodservice trades eroding sales.

The British soft drink group, which also owns the Club Orange and TK Lemonade brands in Ireland, said it saw a “robust” performance in the ‘at-home’ sales channel here, as Irish consumers upped their grocery spends.

However, it said that performance was “more than offset” by ‘out-of-home’ sales declines with hotel, bar and restaurant trade decimated by the Covid social restrictions.

That also negatively impacted the performance of its Irish-based drinks distribution business Counterpoint. Britvic also has the Irish distribution rights to 7-Up, Pepsi Max, Mountain Dew, Drench and the Robinsons range of juice drinks.

Britvic no longer breaks down revenue figures for its Irish division; instead now amalgamating them into its non-UK ‘rest of the world’ division, of which its French business is the other main contributor.

However, Britvic said revenues declined across all of its main markets during the 12 months to the end of September. Revenues in the 'rest of the world' division fell almost 13% on a like-for-like basis.

Back in July, Britvic said its Irish revenues fell 12.5% to €89m for the first half of its financial year, again mainly due to the closure of pubs and offices – into where it traditionally sells water cooler stations – due to Covid.

On an overall group basis, Britvic said its annual revenues fell 8.6% to £1.4bn (€1.6bn), with adjusted earnings sinking 22% to £165.8m. However, market share rose in the key growth markets of the UK and Brazil.

"Soft drinks has repeatedly proved itself to be a highly resilient category, and we fully intend to be at the forefront of its recovery," said group CEO Simon Litherland.