20th May 2015 06:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Soft drinks company Britvic PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit improved in the first half of its financial year despite a fall in revenue following an improvement in its gross margin, and the group hiked its dividend on the back of a confident outlook for the year.
FTSE 250-listed Britvic said its pretax profit in the 28 weeks to April 12 was GBP51 million, up from GBP45.3 million in the 28 weeks to April 13, 2014. Revenue in the period was down to GBP650.3 million from GBP670.7 million, but the group's earnings before interest, taxation and amortisation margin improved to 9.9% from 9.0% a year earlier to offset the revenue decline. The improvement in the margin came from cost savings made over the year and from favourable raw materials prices.
On the back of the rise in profit, the group hiked its interim dividend by 9.8% to 6.7 pence per share, up from 6.1% for the first half of 2014.
Volumes decline by 0.3% in the half, with Britvic's GB stills and International volumes both struggling but partially offset by a solid performance in Ireland, a marginal increase in France and a flat performance for GB carbonates.
"Despite the challenging market conditions we have delivered double-digit earnings growth, continued to improve our margin and further reduced debt," said Simon Litherland, Britvic's chief executive. "We have made significant progress executing our strategy which will continue to create sustainable value for shareholders. Whilst we expect trading conditions to remain challenging, guidance for the current year is unchanged."
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the company said Chief Financial Officer John Gibney will retire from his role in April 2016. Britvic said it has started the process of identifying a successor to Gibney.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Britvic