Britvic cautious but still sparkling

The soft drinks firm, which also makes J20, Pepsi and 7Up, said it expects the British market to demonstrate resilience during 2010 but predicts difficult times ahead for its business in Ireland.

Britvic said sales for the 12 weeks to December 20 grew to 242.7m as British and international revenues offset falls in the firm's Irish market.

The company – the UK's second biggest fizzy drinks supplier behind Coca Cola – said it had out-performed the British soft drinks market, which itself was returning to growth.

Sales of fizzy drinks were up 20 per cent in the period and Britvic said every carbonated brand saw "impressive growth".

Still drinks rose 9.6 per cent and the group said market growth was driven by plain water and sports drinks, while brands such as Robinsons, J20 and Gatorade drove volume increases.

But the group said it was cautious for the future and said its second quarter performance was likely to show a relative slowdown in sales, given the "exceptionally strong" comparative period last year.

"In addition, adverse weather conditions have been unhelpful in the early weeks of January resulting in a marked slowing of demand and looking ahead, we again remain cautious about the outlook for consumer confidence and spending in the balance of the financial year," the group said.

Despite this Britvic said it is confident of hitting its full-year expectations.