Strong Financial Performance By AG Barr
Despite the challenging trading environment, AG Barr has increased revenue and volume ahead of the UK soft drinks market to produce a strong profit performance. Turnover increased by 6.6% to £237.0 million for the year ended January 28th 2012 – a cumulative 27.6% increase in turnover over the last three years – and pre-tax profits, excluding exceptional items, increased by 6.2% to £33.6m reflecting the benefits of sales volume and value enhancing revenue growth and strong cost containment measures. Post exceptional items, profit increased by 16.4% to £35.4 million. All core brands performed well, with particularly strong growth in the company’s exotic juice brands, Rubicon and KA.
AG Barr delivered growth across both the carbonates and stills segments. In stills, AG Barr grew revenue by 9.4% against a market performance of 3.8%. This was primarily driven by growth and innovation in the exotic juice drinks brands – Rubicon and KA. AG Barr is continuing with its strategy of concentrating investment around the core brands Irn-Bru, Barr, Rubicon and KA.
Roger White, chief executive of AG Barr.
“AG Barr has demonstrated its resilience in the face of challenging market conditions, in particular coping with substantial raw material cost headwinds while achieving revenue growth based on brand development, innovation and improved focus on execution,” says Roger White, chief executive of AG Barr. “Our operational performance improved substantially in the final quarter of last year and we are now beginning to see the benefits of our investment in our production assets. We are further reinforcing our confidence in our future growth prospects with the confirmation of our plans to invest in a new site, with substantial future capacity, in the Milton Keynes area.”
He continues: “We anticipate 2012 will be another challenging year in the UK, with household disposable incomes remaining under pressure. Despite this, we remain confident that our financial strength, backed up with strong sales momentum across our core brands, excellent innovation and our anticipated capital investment programme will facilitate further good progress.”
