Soft drinks producer Britvic has recorded an 11.5% increase in revenue for the six months to the middle of April, prompted by volume growth in all major markets apart from Brazil.
The company’s pre-tax earnings were up 6.7% to £73.6 million, while profit after tax decreased 4.9% to £38.6 million.
Britvic said that it was on track to deliver £5 million’s worth of overhead savings during this financial year, and still expects to realise around $3 million of cost synergies from its bolt-on of Bela Ischia, announced in January.
The firm has experienced rising costs from underlying cost inflation and, in the UK, has faced the additional burden of the weakened pound, leading to further cost increases for raw materials it purchases in either euros or US dollars.
But 2.1% growth in carbonates and 1.5% growth in still drinks in the UK have showed signs of promise for Britvic’s brand portfolio. Indeed, Pepsi Max has continued to gain volume and value share; its Robinsons brand, while still facing price pressures in grocery, grew volume through a stabilisation of the core pack formats and successful targeting of new occasions through new pack formats such as Squash’d, dispense and core range bottle sizes.
The brand launched three new blends of spring water and fruit, called Robinsons Refresh’d, in the UK in March.
Britvic chief executive officer Simon Litherland said: “Britvic has delivered a strong first-half performance driven by organic revenue growth in all our markets and successful management of input cost inflation. We have continued to make progress delivering our strategic priorities and have exciting commercial plans for the second half of the year. I am confident that we will deliver full-year performance in line with market expectations.”
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