Ballygowan is one of a number of Irish brands, including Club, owned by Britvic Ireland. Britvic acquired the portfolio of soft drinks from Irish drinks producer CC in 2007, for €249.2m. However, Britvic Ireland has been suffering from falling sales in the face of weak consumer demand, reflecting an overall decline in the soft drinks market.
Results for the year ended October 2011 show that Britvic’s revenues in Ireland declined by 9.6% to £162.8m on a constant currency basis. By contrast, revenues in its core British division rose by 2.5%.
According to Kevin Donnelly, marketing director of Britvic Ireland, the relaunch will involve a significant redesign of packaging and logo as well as a consumer campaign in a move to connect with younger consumers.
Ballygowan was founded in 1981 by Geoff Read and has a varied ownership history. During the mid-1980s it teamed up with drinks company Richard Nash, building a purpose-built bottling and warehousing plant at Newcastle West in Co Limerick in 1991.
Two years later CC bought Ballygowan, before selling its entire soft drinks portfolio to Britvic in 2007. In 1995, Ballygowan acquired Aquaporte, the brand leader in the Irish water cooler market, still a significant part of the Ballygowan business.
Ballygowan, which still bottles and sources its water at Newcastle West, has been struggling to maintain its market-leading position in the Irish bottled water market. While it is still the number one brand according to Nielsen, followed by Volvic and Deep River Rock, it recently slipped to number two behind Volvic in the retail channel.
The bottled water market generally has lost ground in recent years, faced with the consumer downturn and low-priced private label offerings from supermarkets. While Ballygowan is still the market leader in terms of the pub trade, this market has suffered heavily in the recession.
Source: Irish Times
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