Rivals dilute Britvic
A GROWING thirst for health conscious fizzy drinks put some sparkle into Britvic’s annual profit but shares fell flat amid fears that fierce competition will hit sales.
The Robinsons and Tango maker scored a better-than-expected 17.6 per cent rise in full-year pre-tax earnings to £158.1million as revenue rose 2.4 per cent to £1.34billion.
Britvic, which last year rejected a merger with smaller rival AG Barr, scored with sales of drinks such as sugar-free Pepsi Max, following a marketing campaign featuring football stars such as Lionel Messi, Jack Wilshere and Sergio Aguero.
Achieving cost savings sooner than expected helped the bottom line but sales of premium juice drinks such as J2O dried up as consumers sought cheaper alternatives.
We have delivered revenue and margin growth despite challenging trading conditions in each of our markets
Chief executive Simon Litherland said: “We have delivered revenue and margin growth despite challenging trading conditions in each of our markets.
"We are confident of improving our profitability in 2015 as we bring to market our strong innovation and marketing plans and benefit from the delivery of the cost-savings programme.”
Shares fell 41½p to 655p.
