Some two decades after taking the helm at Irn-Bru maker AG Barr, Roger White will bow out with the iconic soft drinks maker displaying plenty of fizz.

Unveiling succession plans alongside a full-year trading update, the group said fellow Scots-born executive Euan Sutherland, who has held high office at the likes of Saga, Superdry and the Co-op Group, would take the reins from the start of May. He takes over as chief executive from White, who announced last summer that he would be standing down in due course after some 20 years in the top post. White had been the Cumbernauld-based drink group’s first CEO from outside the founding Barr family when he was appointed in 2004.

AG Barr confirmed that he would step down from the board at the end of April but remain available until the end of July to support a “smooth leadership transition”. White, 58, bows out on something of a high with the group battling rising costs, a consumer spending squeeze, unfavourable weather and strike action to achieve a strong revenue and profit performance for the year to January.

Roger White was MD of AG Barr for a short period before taking up the role of CEO 20 years ago. Picture by Stewart Attwood

In its trading update, Barr said annual revenues were expected to come in at around £400 million, a new record high, which would represent year-on-year growth of 26 per cent or 7.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis, excluding the contribution from the Boost drinks business acquired in December 2022. Adjusted profit before tax is now expected to be in the region of £49.5m, up 13.8 per cent on the prior year and slightly ahead of previous market expectations.

White said that while it hadn’t been an easy 12 months, it had been “much more of a normalised year”. He said: “We’ve dealt with the inflationary challenges reasonably well and tried to minimise the impact on our customers and consumers as much as possible. Our margins have taken a bit of a hit but we are beginning to recover them and we have seen strong revenue growth through acquisitions and underlying growth in the brands.”

White is not elaborating on his future plans at this stage but did say he was “hoping to find some things that are interesting to do”. Reflecting on the past couple of decades, he told The Scotsman: “I’ve worked alongside a lot of talented, capable people, some of them for over 20 years, and seen how the business has developed and seen how they have developed. That’s been a big highlight for me.

“Irn-Bru was at the heart of the business and still is at the heart of the business but we have a much broader multi-beverage business now. When I joined it was largely a Scottish company that was trying to grow a bit in England and now we are bigger down south than we are up here in terms of the overall portfolio.”

Irn-Bru is one of Scotland's most famous brands and remains the country's best-selling soft drink.

Chairman Mark Allen said: “It has been a great pleasure working with Roger, who has successfully led the business for over two decades and delivered significant value to shareholders, stakeholders and employees. We wish him well in the future.

“On behalf of the board, I am delighted that Euan is joining AG Barr. He has substantial experience across several consumer-facing businesses and will be a strong addition to the board. He is well placed to lead AG Barr through the next exciting phase of its development and to ensure the continued long term success of the business.”

Sutherland, who was most recently group chief executive of Saga, but has also worked for Mars and Coca-Cola, added: “I am very excited to join AG Barr, which has a unique heritage, strong culture and exceptional brands.”

White will still oversee the release of March’s full-year results. Barr said it continued to experience cost inflation though at a “less significant” level than in the previous year. It noted that its supply chain capital investment programme was on track supporting the in-sourcing of the recently acquired Boost and Rio brands.

White told investors: “All our teams across the group have worked hard to deliver an excellent overall performance. This has been supported by continued brand investment, strong execution of our sales plans and progress across our supply chain improvement programme. We have positive momentum behind our brands and business as we enter the new financial year.

“This strong trading performance, coupled with the benefits already being delivered by our margin rebuild programme, has ensured we close the year with a strong profit performance and confidence in the group’s long-term growth strategy.”

John Moore, senior investment manager at wealth firm RBC Brewin Dolphin, said: “AG Barr has delivered another strong sales update. Profits are also up nearly 14 per cent, beating market expectations and helped in part by lower cost inflation. The appointment of a new CEO provides some clarity for the future too. AG Barr has proven its operational resilience in recent years and, with a strong balance sheet and accelerating growth, it looks well positioned going into 2024/2025.”

Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, noted: “Heading into the new year, Barr’s focus remains on its investment plans which are aimed at ramping up production in order to increase efficiencies across its brands. This should help to grow margins over the medium term, but in the short term, while this investment’s taking place, margins are likely to remain under pressure.”

Analysts at house brokerage Shore Capital added: “With the relatively recent acquisitions of Boost, Rio and Moma in tow and accelerated in-house manufacturing… we see AG Barr entering a stronger growth phase over the short and medium term with healthy upside risk to medium-term forecasts.”

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