Premium tonic water maker Fevertree Drinks Plc said on Wednesday it was still being hurt by slack consumer spending in Britain, even as other regions, especially the United States, were performing well.
In a trading update, the company said that it now expects revenue of £266 million (€310.3 million) to £268 million (€312.7 million) for the year ending Dec. 31.
'Slowdown In Spending'
'In the UK Off-Trade, our performance has been behind our expectations in the second half as we continued to lap very tough comparators in July and August and more recently seen a slowdown in consumer spending, as reflected in the wider retail data,' the company said.
Despite these 'short-term headwinds', the company noted that it remains in a 'very strong position in the UK Off-Trade, maintaining our leadership position with 38% value share with little impact from the increasing number of premium competitors who collectively remain at under 5% value share.'
Before Wednesday's announcement, analysts on average were expecting annual revenue of about £272 million (€317.3 million), according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
'Leadership Position'
"Despite challenging comparators, our performance in the UK On-Trade underlines the strength of the brand and while the mixer category in the Off-Trade is moderating alongside the recent slowdown seen across the wider grocery channel, we continue to maintain our clear UK market leadership position," commented CEO Tim Warrillow.
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