Britvic sees chance for sales to shoot up after fruit drink woes

Britvic, which has factories in Leeds and Huddersfield, will increase the distribution of Fruit Shoot to 30 states across America by the summer, while the children’s drink will also launch in Spain in the spring.

The group, which is soon to merge with Irn-Bru owner AG Barr in a £1.4bn deal, added that production had returned to levels seen before last July’s recall, which saw it withdraw all newly-designed bottles of Fruit Shoot and spin-off Fruit Shoot Hydro.

British sales volumes of its still drinks dropped 6.4 per cent in the first quarter as it continued to be impacted by low supply of Fruit Shoot before production returned to normal this month.

Sales volumes overall in Britain rose 2.1 per cent – up 5.4 per cent by value – after a better performance from fizzy drinks, while overall revenues increased 4.8 per cent by value with currency movements stripped out.

But the group warned it had seen a slower start to the second quarter as wider economic conditions continue to hit consumer spending.

In November, Britvic was left nursing a 19 per cent slide in annual profits to £84.4m after a £16.9m hit from the Fruit Shoot recall, which affected supply across the UK, France, Netherlands and Belgium.

Britvic also confirmed the merger with AG Barr is set to complete on February 26.

The deal will lead to the creation of one of Europe’s leading soft drinks firms with annual sales of more than £1.5bn.

Britvic shareholders will own 63 per cent of the new company – to be called Barr Britvic Soft Drinks – with AG Barr holding the rest.