Britvic blames rain for ruining Robinson’s Wimbledon marketing campaign
Britvic’s interim management statement comments on its ‘strong marketing programme’ while discussing the contraction of the soft drink market, which faced its first quarter of volume decline in two years.
The report showed that Group Q3 revenue increased by 12.2%, while GB had a revenue growth of 0.7%. The report, which also looked at the soft drinks market as a whole, stated that in general GB volume performance in the quarter was down 1.9% though value grew 3.2%.
Britvic claimed the bad weather in June led to a negative impact around the Wimbledon promotional campaign, which the Robinson’s brand relies on.
The company also said that the switch from Robinson’s single to double concentrate led to a stills revenue decline of 4.2%.
Paul Moody, chief executive, said: “During the third quarter, the soft drinks markets in GB and Ireland were adversely affected by the poor weather in June, whilst the comparative period in 2010 was strong reflecting both good weather and the football World Cup.
“Nevertheless, Britvic delivered revenue growth across the GB, International and France business units, although Ireland showed a decline. The actions we have taken to proactively manage ARP and margins against such challenging market conditions underpin the Board’s current confidence in meeting its expectations for the full year.
“However, we continue to be cautious about the challenging trading conditions and the impactof consumer sentiment in our largest markets as we move into the final quarter of the financial year.”