Britvic Delivers “Resilient” Performance

21/05/08 The Britvic group, including the first full 28-week contribution from Britvic Ireland, grew revenues by 28.6% to £454.7m during the period.

Britvic GB and International have grown revenue by 1.9% to £355.2m, a resilient performance given challenging trading conditions and tough FY07 comparatives. Highlights include:

Continued outperformance of the market was seen across all categories in stills. Despite a strong post Christmas performance, carbonates were impacted by the weakness in the Licensed On-Premise channel and increased promotional activity across the Take Home market in Q1. Strong international growth was reported, with Robinsons and Fruit Shoot driving Britvic International’s revenue growth up 17.6%. Britvic Ireland has performed well in its first full period, contributing revenues of £99.5m and £4.3m of operating profit. The company is fully on track to deliver on the estimated annual (pre-tax) synergies of €14m by end of FY09.

Operating profit growth of 29.8% to £31.4m with operating profit margin improvement of 10bps to 6.9% due to a continued sharp focus on costs, despite on-going raw material pressures and the first period contribution from Britvic Ireland with its lower margin structure Profit after tax up 19.3% to £13.0m, full year tax rate expected to move to c.24% from 28.2%, due to the full impact of the lower tax regime in Ireland. An improved underlying free cash flow, up 13.9% on last year, underpins the Board’s confidence in paying an interim dividend per share of 3.8p up 15.2% on last year.

Paul Moody, Chief Executive commented: “Britvic has delivered a resilient performance in the first half with market share gains across the majority of our brands. This is a positive result given the challenging trading environment in the Licensed On-Premise market in particular and also in Take Home where the market is still recovering from the effects of last year’s poor summer. The integration of the Britvic Ireland business is progressing well and we are confident of delivering the €14m synergies previously announced.

The first half of our year has been a period of modest growth for the soft drinks market overall, with improving growth trends evident in the early weeks of the second half. We are well positioned to drive group earnings growth through brand and product expansion, innovation, a continued close focus on cost control, and the realisation of the benefits of the outsourcing of retail distribution.  The board remains confident that we will deliver on our full year expectations.”