Britvic creates 60 jobs at Rugby canning factory

Britvic has taken on around 60 new staff at its soft drinks canning factory in Rugby in preparation for a switch to round-the-clock production to meeting growing demand.

A spokeswoman told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the new 24:7 shift pattern would begin at the end of March/early April and was driven by growing demand for Tango, Pepsi and 7Up.

While overall sales at Britvic GB - the second biggest supplier of branded carbonated soft drinks in Britain - were up 0.8% in the first quarter of 2011 (ending December 26, 2010), volumes of carbonates sold to the take-home sector were up 5.8% over the period, said the firm.

While overall volumes in carbonates were down 0.2% over the period, value sales were up 4.5% to 114.2m.

"Our GB Carbonates performance was, in part, impacted by increased promotional activity from the competitor set, which contributed to a Britvic GB Carbonates volume decline of 0.2%.

"However, our maintained focus on value over volume, as well as further on-the-go distribution gains, meant that ARP (average retail price) grew by 4.6%."