Britvic raises profit forecast as fizzy drinks sparkle

Britvic has raised its profit forecast for the full year after enjoying strong fizzy drink sales in the third quarter.

The Pepsi bottler said the group now expected full-year EBIT to come in at the top end of its forecast range of £148m to £156m. 

It adjusted the forecast after reporting a 4.1% increase in group revenue to £329.5m for the third quarter ending 6 July.

Boosted by the recent warm weather, Britvic’s GB fizzy drink sales climbed 10.4%. It said Pepsi had delivered another quarter of “strong market share gain”.

At the same time, the performance of the GB stills was comparatively weak, with sales falling 0.1% in value terms. Britvic said J20 had shown some weakness during the quarter.

The performance in international markets was mixed. In Ireland, sales fell 2.5% on a comparable basis, while in France sales rose 5.6%. In other international markets sales increased 3.8%. Britvic said international sales had suffered from the transfer of a Fruit Shoot production line to France, which resulted in a short-term restriction of supply into other European markets.

“The business has continued to grow, despite the challenging retail trading and consumer environment in our European markets,” said Britvic CEO Simon Litherland.

“This year’s innovations, including Robinsons Squash’d, have performed well and our consumer marketing campaigns have been highly impactful, including our sponsorship of the Tour De France and the association of Pepsi with football, which helped to deliver an exceptionally strong carbonates performance.”