Britvic's Irish revenues decline

Revenue at Britvic's Irish operations fell by 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year, lagging behind growth in its UK and France operations.

But the company attributed the decline to third party products it distributes, with its own brands outperforming the market. Britvic grew its brand revenues, with average realised price rising 7.6 per cent but volume down 2.4 per cent.

That compared with data from Nielsen claiming that the Irish take-home soft drinks market declined by 7.6 per cent on a volume basis and 5 per cent in value in the last quarter.

Group revenue rose by 4.8 per cent to £303.2 million during the quarter, with GB revenue up 5.4 per cent and France growing 4.3 per cent.

"The performance in both France and Ireland has been encouraging," said chief executive Paul Moody.

In the GB unit, volume rose by 2.1 per cent, with average realised price 3.2 per cent higher.

Carbonates revenue grew by 9.2 per cent, with volumes up almost 5 per cent compared with a year earlier. Still revenue was 0.7 per cent lower as supply levels of its Fruit Shoot product were limited. Excluding the impact of that product, still revenue grew, Britvic said.

The drinks group's international revenue was 35.6 per cent higher, with ARP up 17.5 per cent and volumes rising by 15.4 per cent as Fruit Shoot was reintroduced to the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the company has reached an agreement with PepsiCo Americas Beverages to distribute the Fruit Shoot products to 30 US states by summer, and a second agreement with PepsiCo South West Europe will see the brand distributed in Spain from early spring.

"The second quarter has started more slowly reflecting the continuing challenging economic and trading environment," Mr Moody said. "However, overall we are confident that the business is well positioned to meet these challenges."