Robinsons, J2O dampen Britvic stills performance
That’s according to a note posted by Investec analyst Nicola Mallard after the soft drinks manufacturer’s results for the 12 weeks to December 22 were announced.
“We had expected stronger progress in GB [Great Britain] stills, given the return of Fruit Shoot to the market (it was absent in Q1 last year),” stated Mallard. “… But this was more than offset by lower volumes on Robinsons and J2O, where the group has also stepped back from unprofitable volume.”
Volume sales of Britvic still drinks fell by 3.4%, the company claimed. However, Mallard stressed this was to be expected given its shift in focus from volume to value sales.
Tough target
And she said it achieved better than expected results for carbonated drink sales, despite strong sales in the same period last year leaving a tough target to compete against. That said, volume sales of carbonated drinks fell by 0.9%
Taking into account exchange rates, Britvic claimed overall value sales had risen 2.8% during the quarter to £311.8M. The company grew GB revenue by 1.5%, and international revenue by 5.6%.
Britvic predicted full-year pre-tax profit of between £148M and £156M.
‘Remain on-track’
“We continued to make good progress implementing our new strategy and remain on-track to deliver our cost reduction initiatives as planned this year,” said Britvic md Simon Litherland.
In its full-year results for 2013, Britvic celebrated the growth of its Fruit Shoot juice drink brand after it was hit by a multi-million pound recall in 2012.
