“Conditions in Ireland remain difficult” – Britvic

Britvic experienced a 9.6 per cent drop in sales here to €187.2 million (£162.8m) in the year to October 2nd with volumes down eight per cent as conditions in Ireland “remain difficult” according to Britvic Chief Executive Paul Moody in a trading update, published recently.

In the last Quarter of the company’s financial year, revenues in Ireland were down 8.3 per cent while volumes declined by 6.8 per cent.

“Continued very challenging macro-economic conditions and disappointing weather in Ireland has led to the total soft drinks market, as measured by Nielsen, contracting further,” states the update, “In Ireland the market contraction continued in quarter four, with volume down by 5.6 per cent in take-home and value down by 5.1 per cent. The grocery channel continued to perform relatively better than the convenience channel.

Group revenue at Britvic for the year (excluding France) climbed 15.1 per cent to £1.29 billion (€1.47bn).