Sugar tax has not dampened Britvic’s spirits as revenues rise to £678m
SOFT drinks supplier Britvic has weathered a “challenging customer environment” and is reporting revenues and profits on the up. Revenue for the first half of the year, to 10 April 2016, increased 5.1% to £678.0m, and pre-tax profits jumped from £51.0m to £54.5m.
In April this year, Britvic signed a £12m contract with Harris Construction Management to increase capacity at its Bramley site near Leeds.
An additional 86,000 sq ft has been added to these production and warehousing facilities, which are now operational. It will enable capacity to be increased by 25% to 120,000 cans per hour.
The soft drinks business, along with Coca Cola hit back at George Osborne following the announcement of the proposed sugar tax. The consortium are planning a legal challenge to the plans.
Simon Litherland, Britvic chief executive officer commented: “We have reported a 7.1% increase in EBITA in the first half of the year despite the challenging customer environment and continued price deflation in our core markets.
“We have outperformed the soft drinks category in each of our core markets, gaining market share as a result. Our recent acquisition in Brazil is growing ahead of last year and Fruit Shoot multi-pack is being launched in the USA.
“We continue to invest behind the longer term drivers of growth – supply chain efficiency in GB, innovation and our international businesses – and I remain excited about our ability to drive sustainable revenue growth in the years ahead.”
