Britvic Ireland’s H1 up 3.5% in volume

Excluding factored brands sold by Britvic’s distribution company here Counterpoint, Britvic Ireland’s sales volumes for the 28 weeks to the 12th April showed a 3.5% sales increase when compared to the same period the previous year but at €86.3 million (£61.7 million) revenues were down 3.9% from H1 2014 (€89.8m/£64.2m) although they showed growth of 2.5% on a constant exchange rate, outperforming the market.

This led to a strong performance from the owned-branded business, stated the company in its interim results, published yesterday.

“In Ireland we have started to see signs of growth in the market after a number of years of decline reflecting the challenging macro environment,” it stated, adding that the sale of Britvic Ireland’s property here, completed on 2nd October 2014, resulted in a gain on disposal of €1.1 million (£800,000).

Britvic Ireland owns a number of leading brands in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Club, Ballygowan and MiWadi as well as the rights to the 7UP, Mountain Dew and Pepsi brands. The company’s Exclusive Bottling Agreement for the Pepsi brand runs out this year and discussions to renew this agreement are ongoing.

Overall, Britvic plc saw a decline of 0.7% in Group revenue in H1 to £650.3 million on marginally reduced volumes.