British soft drinks company Britvic Plc said its third-quarter revenue rose 3.4% helped by strong sales of its sugar-free and non-carbonated drinks.
The company, which also bottles Pepsi in the UK, said that it could not fully capitalise on unusually warm weather to boost sales further in Britain and Ireland, due to an industry-wide shortage of carbon dioxide.
Britvic's quarterly revenue rose 3.4% to £366.9 million. Revenue excluding the recently implemented sugar tax fell 0.6% from last year.
Strong Underlying Performance
“Britvic has delivered a strong underlying performance in the third quarter, through continuing outstanding execution of no sugar carbonates and substantial growth from our stills brands,” commented Simon Litherland, the company’s chief executive.
“Whilst the industry-wide shortage of carbon dioxide held back our ability to fully capitalise on the exceptional weather in GB and Ireland, we leveraged the breadth and strength of our portfolio to moderate the impact. Consequently, we remain confident of achieving market expectations for the full year.”
Main Markets
In the company’s main UK market, revenue increased 8.0% (+1.9% if the sugar tax is excluded) with carbonates rising by 6.1% (a 2.9% drop if the sugar tax is excluded).
‘Since the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) in April, the soft drinks category has benefited from a prolonged period of unusually warm weather,’ the company said in a statement.
‘This, when coupled with the carbon dioxide shortage, makes it difficult to disaggregate the effect of the Levy, and we anticipate having a more informed view of the impact at the end of the year.’
Revenue at the group's Irish operation was up 11.3% (+6.6% excluding SDIL), with the group's stills portfolio, including Ballygowan water benefiting from warm weather in the period. In France, revenue was down 15%, with the company citing poor weather in June as a factor in its performance.
Brazil revenue was up 10.2%, against a soft comparative last year, while International revenue rose 8.7% for the quarter.
News by Reuters, edited by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
