Britvic delivers impressive revenue hike with profits of over €150m

DRINKS company Britvic has enjoyed an “outstanding” year after reporting a profit after tax of £125.8m (€150m) for the 12 months to the end of September.

The group, whose Irish operations are based in Kylemore, say they have delivered another year of impressive revenue growth in Ireland.

Group’s revenues rose 9.5 per cent to almost £1.9bn, while its adjusted earnings per share jumped by 13.9 per cent to 69.5 pence.

The company said its performance was helped by strong demand for its portfolio of soft drinks that aided both domestic growth and double-digit growth in Brazil.

The company said that in Brazil both their established and acquired brands were “in high double-digit revenue growth” of 35.3 per cent.

The UK-headquartered group has a manufacturing site in Ballyfermot for the last 50 years, and also operates a Ballygowan bottling site in Limerick.

It owns brands including Ballygowan, MiWadi, Club, Cidona and TK.

Britvic Ireland has a history here for over 240 years and is one of the oldest soft drinks companies in the world.

It is the only large-scale soft drinks manufacturer in the Republic employing 360 people across the island.

Brands such as Robinsons, Fruit Shoot and London Essence Company as well as PepsiCo brands like Pepsi and 7UP are produced and marketed under licence.

Kevin Donnelly, Managing Director of Britvic Ireland, said the company delivered another year of impressive revenue growth in Ireland.

“Encouragingly, we saw a return to volume growth in the fourth quarter, with volumes up 5.9 per cent on last year, and market share gains,” he said.

“We continue to invest in our manufacturing facilities in Ireland, introducing tethered caps in July, expanding capacity for Ballygowan Hint of Fruit, and introducing sleek cans across our carbonated drinks portfolio.”