Ex-C&C brands yield £49m for Britvic

Ballygowan water, Club and other soft drinks brands formerly owned by C&C yielded revenues of £49.3 million (€66 million) for Britvic Ireland in its first six months of owning them.

Britvic, which completed a €249 million deal to buy C&C's soft drinks business last August, said revenues in the Irish operation grew 5.6 per cent in sterling terms in the final quarter of 2007.

But the company was the beneficiary of exchange rate movements rather than a healthy soft drinks market: flat volumes meant that revenues fell 0.8 per cent in euro terms.

Britvic told shareholders at its agm that the performance of its Irish operation had been strong in the take-home market, which was driven by growth in the Miwadi and Ballygowan brands. But the on-premises market showed "low single-digit decline".

The drinks company said it was on track to achieve annual pre-tax savings of €14 million from the integration of the business into its existing operations.

Britvic recently announced that it would close its factory in Cork and move production to its plant in Dublin, in which it has invested €7.6 million.

Britvic Ireland's contribution of £49.3 million was part of total reported revenues of £214 million for Britvic in the 12 weeks to December 23rd, an increase of 31 per cent on the same period in 2006.

It blamed the introduction of the smoking ban in the UK and a slowdown in consumer spending for a 5 per cent drop in on- premises soft drink consumption in the UK, but fizzy drinks sales helped volumes in the take-home market make a slight recovery.

C&C had spent 18 months try- ing to turn round the Irish soft drinks division, which had been hurt by a fall in fizzy drink sales, before deciding to focus solely on alcohol. The business, which had turnover of €270 million in the year to end of February 2007, in- cluded the franchise for distribution of 7Up and Pepsi in Ireland.