British soft drinks producer Britvic has announced a 1.4% fall in GB revenues amid “challenging trading conditions”.
The Robinson‘s squash and Tango maker insists it remains confident of hitting full year profit expectations, after reporting overall group revenue for the twelve weeks to 21 December 2014 as down by 0.4% to £304.3m, driven by a marginal volume decline of 0.3%.
GB revenue declined 1.4% in a “notably more competitive promotional environment” Britvic said. Despite the British take-home soft drinks market value declining 0.5%, the quarter ended with a stronger performance during the peak Christmas trading period.
Revenue still declined by 3%, due in large to a volume reduction of 2.8% because of falling squash sales, with Robinsons losing marginal share. Britvic said this morning:
“Trading in the first quarter of the FY15 financial year reflects the challenging trading conditions in our core markets. However, we remain confident of delivering EBIT in the previously stated guidance range of £164m to £173m, underpinned by our cost saving initiatives.” Simon Litherland, Chief Executive, commented: “While we expect the trading environment to remain challenging, we have strong marketing plans and a significant innovation pipeline in place for 2015. These strong commercial plans, supported by ongoing cost benefits from our major strategic initiatives programme, mean that we remain confident of delivering further profitable growth in 2015 in line with our guidance range.”
The trading update comes as Britvic declares it will be axing all full-sugar lines from its Robinsons fruit squash as a part of a brand relaunch.
