Britvic has reported revenue of £311.6 million for the 12 weeks ending December 20, 2015, however on an organic basis, reported revenue declined by 2.4 per cent to £290.1 million.
In Ireland, revenue rose by 1 per cent, as Britvic’s wholesale division, Counterpoint, continued to expand its presence across the country.
Growth was slightly offset by a weaker performance for Britvic’s carbonates, due to intense promotional activity in the market running up to Christmas. However, Ballygowan water, which already has a relatively low average retail price, performed well
Meanwhile, revenues in the UK and France declined by 1.2 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively. In Britain, this has been put down to generally tough trading conditions in the grocery channel, while in France; the decline was attributed to lower margin private label sales.
Comparable International revenues fell by 13.8 per cent, primarily due to a stock build in the Netherlands, and in anticipation of the change in route to market and weaker trading conditions in Benelux.
Over in the United States, Britvic has only recognised compound sales for single-serve products this quarter, and it notes that shipments of these were ahead of last year.
As anticipated, market conditions in Brazil generally remained very tough, and for the first quarter of Britvic’s recently acquired operation there, revenues were £21.5 million – in line with business performance in the same period the previous year.
Britvic Chief Executive, Simon Litherland commented on the Q1 results, “As anticipated, our first quarter performance reflected both the prevailing challenging trading conditions and a slow start in October.
“However trading over the entire Christmas period in our core markets was encouraging, with revenue ahead of last year, and in the quarter, we grew or held market value share in each of these markets.”
He concluded by saying, “With strong marketing and innovation plans for the year ahead, and an ongoing focus on cost control, we reaffirm our EBITA guidance range of £180m to £190m for 2016.”
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Jenny Whelan. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
