FDBusiness.com

Nichols, the soft drinks group, has increased profit before tax by 39% to £6.0m on sales ahead by 17.8% to £44.2m for the six months to 30th June 2010. Whilst the total soft drinks market has grown by 5.1% in value terms, sales in Nichols’ UK soft drinks business grew by 19.3% in the first half year as the company’s carbonated and stills sales significantly outperformed the market in each category.

Growth has been driven by further distribution gains and continued strong growth of the Vimto brand along with the successful launch of ‘Cherry Vimto’ in January 2010. Sales of Cherry are currently running at 9.1% of total ‘Vimto Original’ sales, the majority of which is incremental business.

“We have continued to increase our market share and have again significantly outperformed the sector,” says John Nichols, non-executive chairman of Nichols. “The momentum we have built up over the past few years has certainly continued and we anticipate profits at the year end will be significantly ahead of last year.”