Wet weather leads to drought for revenue growth for Britvic
THE SUMMER washout has dampened sales of soft drinks, Britvic complained yesterday as it reported a deluge of disappointing figures.
Britvic’s revenues dropped 7.6 per cent in the quarter, hurt by a currency impact as well as falling sales.
The firm was last month forced to recall its Fruit Shoot drinks after a choking scare over a new drinks cap, and as a result the company has trimmed capital expenditure for the year from around £70m to £50m. But the firm kept its full-year guidance unchanged yesterday, having already said last week that the recall is expected to knock between £15m and £25m off profit before tax over the next two years.
Britain was not the only country to spurn soft drinks during the summer rain. Britvic’s revenues in Ireland fell 11 per cent compared to a year ago, while volumes dropped and revenues rose in France.
Analysts at Shore Capital said that despite the falling sales, Britvic was gaining market share.