© Refresco/Richard Sinon
Higher volumes helped drive a near-14% increase in Refresco’s second-quarter revenues, two weeks after it announced the acquisition of Cott’s soft drinks business.
Revenue was up from €559 million in the second quarter of last year to €643 million this quarter, with volume increasing by nearly 350 million litres to 2.05 billion litres.
The Dutch company’s pre-tax earnings were €65 million, with net profit of €27 million.
FoodBev revealed at the end of July that Refresco would acquire Cott’s traditional soft drinks manufacturing business in both North America and Europe, adding an extra $1.7 billion to its annual revenues.
The deal has the potential to create the world’s first truly global beverage co-packing business, bolstering Refresco’s European presence with previously absent coverage across the US.
Refresco CEO Hans Roelofs said: “In July we announced the acquisition of Cott’s bottling activities, transforming Refresco into the world’s largest independent bottler. In combining the two companies we create nationwide coverage in the US – the largest single soft drinks market globally – while adding significant capacity and extending our broad product portfolio in the UK.
“This acquisition lies at the heart of our buy-and-build strategy and is a perfect fit with Refresco’s current activities. It taps into the expected private-label growth in the US, enabling us to support further growth of our core customers and it creates a US national platform for contract manufacturing. We look forward to presenting this exciting new development to shareholders for their approval… on September 5.
“Looking back at the second-quarter results, we are pleased to report strong volume growth in Europe and the US driven by acquisitions and organic growth. On a like-for-like basis, volume in retail brands remained stable and contract manufacturing for A-brands was up double digit. Gross profit margin per litre was in line with our expectations. Volume fluctuations in the quarter and significant start-up costs of recently installed production lines affected our results.”
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