Growth expectation raises Ballygowan-owner's share price

Britvic is currently looking ahead to the upcoming refresh of the Pepsi brand for which it has the exclusive bottling rights in Britain

Ballygowan and MiWadi are just some of the brands owned by Britvic. 

MiWadi and Ballygowan-owner Britvic is confident in achieving growth this year as strong trading in December gets its financial year off to a “positive start”.

The company's share price rose over 3% following the publication of its latest results for the last three months of 2023. 

Simon Litherland, chief executive of Britvic, said they are confident that the company will achieve growth this year “within the range of market expectations” and continue to deliver returns over the longer term.

The company is currently looking ahead to the upcoming refresh of the Pepsi brand — the first one in 14 years — for which it has the exclusive bottling rights in Britain.

In the three months to the end of December, the company generated £443.5m (€518.5m) in revenue representing an 8.1% increase on the same period the previous year. Its volume sales also grew by 1.7%. 

In its international markets, revenue grew by 6%. Revenue from Ireland grew by 12.5% — the second highest increase across the company’s markets only behind Brazil which grew by 21%.

December trading was particularly strong for the company with revenue growing by 12.1% and volume growing 6.4% compared to December 2022.