Britvic Ireland sales drags Group revenue down in Q3

The coolest June weather since 2001 did little to help boost sales of soft drinks this Summer and combined with weakening consumer spending, this market contracted sharply in both volume and value in the last four weeks of Q3 to 21st July.

Britvic’s Interim Management Statement reported that volume in the Irish soft drinks market was down 13.2 per cent while value fell by 11.2 per cent for the last four-week period of its third quarter. GB market volume was down 8.2 per cent over the final four-week period with value declining by 2.3 per cent.

“This market contraction combined with the very strong Britvic volume comparatives for the quarter in GB carbonates + 13.8 per cent and Ireland + 15.0 per cent resulted in a slowdown versus last year,” the company stated.

When input from Britvic’s French operation is excluded from the results, Ireland played a significant factor in the Group’s overall revenue decline in the quarter with Britvic’s revenues dropping 1.8 per cent overall.

Revenue for the Irish operation in Q3 was down 15.3 per cent to €41.5 million (a drop of 10.8 per cent in the year so far) reflecting the “continued tough macro-economic conditions, the poor weather in Ireland and a strong prior year comparative of 8.6 per cent”.