The job cuts were announced as part of a strategic review designed to adapt the business model in Ireland to declining revenues and margins.
Strategic review
Britvic concluded that it needed to reduce the size of its Irish operations and direct investment towards new product development and marketing.
Around 100 redundancies are therefore being sought from its commercial division by the end of the month. Britvic said the remaining commercial staff will be retrained and redeployed within a new team.
It said the decision “recognizes that the existing pre-recession commercial structure is no longer reflective of market needs.”
Write-down
News of the job losses comes a month after Britvic announced its decision to take a £104.2m write-down on intangible and property assets in Ireland for 2010.
The change to the balance sheet followed continued revenue and profit woes over the past three years. In the financial year 2010 volumes fell 1.3 per cent having already dropped 10.7 per cent the year before.
Commenting on the 2010 business performance in Ireland, Britvic chief executive Paul Moody said: “2010 proved to be a challenging year for businesses in Ireland and we were not immune to this pressure. The Irish soft-drinks market continued to decline in value and this impacted Britvic Ireland at both a revenue and profit level.”
Britvic Ireland has a portfolio of some of the market leading soft drink brands in the country including Ballygowan, 7UP, Robinsons and Pepsi. It was formed in 2007 when Britvic acquired the soft drinks arm of the Irish cider group C&C for €249m (£170m).
The total workforce at Britvic Ireland, which has operations in Co. Tipperary, Dublin and Belfast, currently numbers 730 employees.