27th Jan 2015 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Fruit Shoot and Pepsi Max maker Britvic PLC Tuesday said overall revenue dipped by 0.4% in the first quarter, citing "challenging trading conditions" in the UK and internationally, where volumes fell and selling prices remained flat.
The FTSE 250- listed soft drinks company warned at the end of last year that the new financial year had started slowly, but had said that it was confident of further profit improvement during the year on the back of new product launches and more benefits from its cost cutting measures.
"As anticipated at our preliminary results in November, trading in the first quarter of the financial year reflects the challenging trading conditions in our core markets," the company said in a statement.
Britvis said group revenue for the first quarter to December 21 came in at GBP304.3 million, down 0.4% on last year, driven by a marginal volume decline of 0.3%, and flat average realised prices.
Regionally, UK revenue declined 1.4% as promotional activity heated up, and both revenue and volume declined for stills and carbonate drinks. In Ireland, revenue rose 2.8% driven by volume growth and higher prices, while revenue in France rose 2.3% as a 0.4% fall in average realised prices was more than offset by 2.6% volume growth.
International revenue declined by 3.6%, mainly due to lower volumes in the travel sector combined with lower concentrate shipments in the US. This was due to the introduction of a new franchise compound manufacturing process, which the group said materially reduces both order lead times and the required stockholding of its bottlers.
"Sales momentum continued to build as we plan for the second half launch of the Fruit Shoot multipack in the US," it said.
The group said however, that it still remains confident of delivering earnings before interest and taxes in the range of GBP164 million to GBP173 million, supported by its cost-saving plans.
"Whilst 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," said Chief Executive Simon Litherland in the statement.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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