FDBusiness.com

UK soft drinks group Britvic increased revenue by 11.5% to £756.3 million and pre-exceptional EBITA by 6.7% to £73.6 million in the 28 weeks ended 16 April 2017, compared to the corresponding period last year. Organic revenue rose by 3.7% and organic pre-exceptional EBITA by 5.1%.

In the period, Britvic sold over 1.1 billion litres of soft drinks, an increase of 2.0% on the previous year, with Average Realised Price (ARP) of 61.8p, increasing by 1.5% on a constant currency basis. Organic margin, on a constant currency basis, increased by 10bps.

Britvic has reported strong revenue growth, with all business units in growth compared to last year. The company is implementing measure to deliver £5 million of overhead savings in the current financial year. On the international front, Britvic has completed the complementary bolt-on acquisition of Bela Ischia in Brazil and integration is underway and on track to deliver R$10 million of cost synergies. Britvic is also continuing in its efforts to build quality distribution of its Fruit Shoot brand in the USA.

Simon Litherland, chief executive of Britvic, comments: “Britvic has delivered a strong first half performance driven by organic revenue growth in all our markets and successful management of input cost inflation. We have continued to make progress delivering our strategic priorities and have exciting commercial plans for the second half of the year. I am confident that we will deliver full year performance in line with market expectations.”