Soft drinks giant Britvic described its first-half result as “excellent” after posting healthy rises in profits, sales, and volumes.
In the six months to 31 March, the group’s revenue increased 11.2% to £880.3m after seeing robust growth across all three of its business units. Adjusted EBIT climbed 17.7% to £100.4m after margin increased 60bps to 11.4%.
Despite implementing further price rises, Britvic delivered a 4.4% increase in volumes thanks to strong consumer demand for its leading brands, including “standout” growth for Pepsi MAX, Ballygown, Fruit Shoot and Lipton.
In its core Great Britain unit, Britvic saw an 8.8% rise in revenues to £592.2m, with volumes increasing 2.6% after a 5.0% jump in the second quarter. The group noted Average Realised Price (ARP) growth of 6.0% was driven through a combination of “improved mix, price realisation and optimising promotional activity”.
Britvic highlighted that Pepsi was a key driver of growth in the GB divsion, with revenue increasing 8.5%, benefitting from a brand refresh investment in March and growth in cans. Other growth highlights included Tango, J2O, Fruit Shoot and Lipton.
The performance of its Robinsons was described as “stable” compared to last year, while Rockstar continued to be “challenging”. Britvic noted that it continued to focus on new growth areas, with its Plenish and Aqua Libra brands generating growth of 169% and 34% respectively.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, revenues soared 34.7% to £102.0m. This was driven by strong growth of existing brands as well as the acquisition of Extra Power last October.
In Britvic’s ‘Other International’ unit, revenue increased 8.2% to £186.1m after the good performance of key brands. However, volumes declined 1.3% after the launch of a deposit return scheme in Ireland in February led to a second-quarter decline as retailers de-stocked ahead of the rollout.
Chief Executive Simon Litherland said he was “delighted” with the “excellent” first-half performance.
He added: “Our market-leading growth comes from the combination of another strong performance from our scale family favourite brands, coupled with accelerated growth in Brazil and across multiple new growth spaces, such as London Essence, Aqua Libra and Plenish. We have increased the investment behind our brands by over 38% in the period.
“Looking forward, I am confident that we will deliver a strong full-year performance.”
