Britvic profits helped by warm weather
The maker of Fruit Shoot and Tango drinks, which pulled out of a planned merger with rival AG Barr earlier this year, posted an underlying pre-tax profit of £137.9 million for the year to 29 September, on revenues 4.4 per cent higher at £1.3 billion.
Chief executive Simon Litherland said: “Although market conditions remained difficult in each of our business units, we saw some notable successes across the business and benefitted from the warm weather, with an exceptionally hot July.”
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Hide AdLitherland said Britvic remained on track to slash its costs by £30m a year by 2016.
He added: “While we anticipate that the consumer environment will remain challenging in 2014, trading in the new financial year is slightly ahead of a strong first quarter performance last year and we are confident of delivering earnings before interest and tax in the range of £148m to £156m for the full year.”
Britvic’s board proposed a final dividend of 13p a share to be paid on 7 February, an increase of 4.8 per cent on a year ago.