Britvic's Irish unit reports operating profit of £4.3m

IRISH BRANDS such as Ballygowan and Club Orange contributed €5 million to profits and accounted for most of the first-half sales growth at Britvic plc.

Britvic last year paid €249 million for CC’s soft drinks business, which includes Ballygowan mineral water, Cidona and Club.

Yesterday Britvic said that, in the 28 weeks to April 13th, operating profit from the Irish business was £4.3 million (€5.36 million). Britvic Ireland had sales of £99.5 million.

The figures show that the Irish business contributed to the bulk of the company’s sales growth during the 28-week period.

Total revenues were up 28.6 per cent to £454.7 million, from £353.6 million during the same period in the previous year.

Excluding Irish turnover, Britvic’s UK and international sales were up 1.9 per cent at £355.2 million. The group described this as a “resilient” performance.

The British group expects to see some benefits from the Republic’s 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.

Its statement said that total group profit after tax for the period was up 19.3 per cent at £13 million.

It added that it expected its full-year tax rate to drop to about 24 per cent from 28.2 per cent as a result of the “full impact of the lower tax regime in Ireland”.

Britvic plans to cut €14 million in costs from the Irish business by next year.

In January it closed a manufacturing plant at Little Island, Cork, with the loss of 60 jobs. At the time, the group said it was consolidating production at its Kylemore plant in Dublin. Britvic plans to invest €7.6 million in this facility.

The jobs are being phased out over 12 months. The company employs 900 people in Ireland, including 200 at a distribution centre in Cork and at the Ballygowan bottling plant in Limerick.

CC said it would concentrate on its Magners and Bulmers cider business when it announced the sale of the soft drinks division to Britvic a year ago.