Britvic profits up as sales stay strong

2nd Dec 2010 07:31

Soft drinks group Britvic's full-year profits were higher as sales continued fizzing in spite of subdued economic conditions.The company, which sells its own brand of juice and distributes Pepsi in Britain, posted a pre-tax profit of £109.1m in the 53 weeks to October 3, up from £104.6m the previous year. Revenues, excluding the impact of the acquisition of Britvic France in May, were up to £1,138.6m from £1,121.1m.The full-year dividend has been upped by 11.3% to 16.7p. Britvic says it is continuing to win market share. "Whilst we expect the consumer and cost environment to remain challenging, we are confident in our ability to compete strongly in the markets in which we operate," said chief executive Paul Moody. "The group's extensive brand and innovation plans, combined with satisfactory trading in the first few weeks of the new financial year, mean we are in good shape to deliver another robust set of results for the year ahead."