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Ag Barr Rubicon Irn-Bru

AG Barr set to acquire fruit juice brand

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 6, 2008 | 2 min read

AG Barr, the soft drinks firm behind Scottish best seller Irn-Bru, has entered into a conditional agreement to purchase fruit juice brand Rubicon Limited for £59.8m.

The Rubicon Group is a UK-based manufacturer and distributor of branded exotic juice drinks which, has sales of £27.3m and an adjusted operating profit of £4.7m.

The deal is awaiting approval from Barr's shareholders and an Extraordinary General Meeting will be convened for this purpose.

The Rubicon business was established in 1981 by Naresh Nagrecha and Vishram Vekaria, employing almost 100 people.

With offices in Wembley, North London, and a dedicated manufacturing facility at Tredegar, Gwent, the business also supplements its own manufacturing capability through co-manufacturing agreements.

Rubicon’s carbonated drinks have been manufactured by Barr under a co-manufacturing arrangement over the last 20 years. As such, Rubicon and Barr have developed a close relationship over this period, during which time Barr has gained a good working knowledge of the Rubicon brand and Rubicon’s wider business.

AG Barr chief executive, Roger White said: "The acquisition of the Rubicon business is a great opportunity for Barr. The existing growth momentum of the Rubicon brand in the exotic juice drinks sector and the potential to build on this through its combination with Barr is an exciting prospect. The acquisition is in line with our core strategy of developing our portfolio and increasing the scale of our business through differentiated quality brands, at the same time it strengthens our position in the growing juice drinks category.”

Ag Barr Rubicon Irn-Bru

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