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C&C Group has said that volume performance in its Bulmers, Magners and Tennent’s brands was ‘a significant improvement’ last year on 2015, as it prepares to announced full-year profit believed to be in the region of €95 million.
It comes after it signed a number of distribution agreements in markets worldwide, particularly for its Magners cider. It signed a distribution agreement with San Miguel Marketing Thailand for the southeast Asian region in March, followed by a further partnership with Coca-Cola Amatil in New Zealand.
In the past year, it also extended its partnership with Anheuser-Busch for the sale and marketing of C&C’s cider portfolio in England and Wales.
FoodBev understands that Magners grew 7% and Bulmers was up 3%, after both recording volume decline the year before. Tennent’s lager will record flat year-on-year volume growth, after posting 4% decline in 2015/16.
Niche and speciality volume – consisting of Heverlee Belgian beer, Meneabrea Italian birra and Chaplin & Cork’s craft cider – will be up 50% over the year and now constitutes 2% of group-owned brand volume.
Despite the improved performance, the group’s operating profit was lower than the year before, when it reported net revenue of €663 million and operating profit of €103 million. The Irish-headquartered company said that ‘the major factor in the decline was the devaluation of sterling’.
“The volume performance of our core brands and our growing niche/speciality portfolio was robust in the full year to February 2017, despite challenging trading conditions,” a spokesperson for the group told FoodBev. “However, the impact of currency, negative market pressures on pricing and pack/channel mix have impacted the group’s profitability.
“In the full year to 2018, we will continue to invest in our core brands to deliver long-term growth, remain disciplined on costs and look to strengthen our route-to-market where possible. Given market dynamics and consumer concerns, we remain cautious on the outlook for our domestic markets and are not anticipating improved trading conditions in the short term.”
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