Soft drinks group Britvic said today it is confident of meeting market forecasts for its full-year earnings but warned that conditions in the pub market will remain challenging.
The firm, Britain's second-biggest soft drinks maker behind Coca-Cola Enterprises, reported a 3.7% rise in sales in the 40 weeks to July 6, boosted by strong growth in sales of still drinks such as Robinsons, J20, and Fruit Shoot.
Including the contribution from Britvic Ireland, Britvic reported revenues of £690m, an increase of 29.9%. Britvic Ireland contributed £147.2m of this. Britvic bought the C&C soft drinks business last year for £170m. Its brands include Ballygowan.
In its trading update, the company said that Britvic Ireland's revenues grew by 6.1% in sterling terms in the nine-month period, as the company benefited from exchange rate movements. But underlying euro revenues were down 5.2% with volumes down by 2.9%.
It said that it noted the 'markedly more challenging' economic conditions in Ireland in the last three months. It said this resulted in a low to mid-single digit decline in both the pub and off-licence markets.
'Britvic Ireland continues to maintain share in all of its key categories and achievement of the synergies within Ireland outlined at the time of the acquisition remain on track,' the statement said.
Britvic said it had outperformed the overall stills market in a number of key categories in the 40-week period, including squash, juice drinks, water, and sports drinks, including newly-launched Gatorade.
Britvic has the rights to sell Pepsi in the UK and Ireland and has stated its intention to look for additional franchises in Europe.
