Britvic shrugs off soft drinks decline

25th Nov 2009 07:44

Soft drinks group Britvic said it was winning market share in all key categories as it posted a rise in revenues and profits.The firm, which sells Robinsons fruit juice and has the license for Pepsi in the UK said pre-tax profits in the year to September 27 climbed to £86.5m from £70.1m the previous year on revenues that rose to £978.8m from £926.5m. It will pay a dividend of 15p a share, up from 12.6p last year.Higher profits came in spite of a small decline in the soft drinks market, Britvic said. UK and international revenues grew by 8.7% to £789.3m, while tough economic conditions in Ireland saw sales fall by 5.6%.'Recent conditions in the GB soft drink market have shown some signs of improvement, although visibility in both GB and Ireland beyond the short term remains limited and we take a cautious view of consumer spending,' chief executive Paul Moody said. 'However, we are encouraged by our strong group performance in the early weeks of the new financial year, building on our track record of top-line, margin and quality earnings growth.'