Soft drinks group Britvic has said that it is confident in its future growth prospects after revenue and profits increased in its financial year ended 30 September 2021.
Growth was mainly driven by the company’s brands across various business units, including UK and Brazil.
The continued growth in at-home channels, with out-of-home rebounding in the second half, also boosted the company’s performance.
In this period, Britvic acquired plant-based drinks company Plenish and relaunched the Rockstar brand.
It also continued to invest in its brands, people, and infrastructure to explore new growth areas.
Commenting on the company’s performance, chief executive officer, Simon Litherland, said, “This year we have recovered strongly from the effects of the pandemic, with underlying revenue, margin, and profit all in growth.
“Our disciplined cash management enabled us to pay down debt and to increase our dividend by 12.0%, reflecting our confidence in the business.”
Annual Performance
The company’s profit after tax increased 9.1% year-on-year to £103.2 million (€122.5 million), while adjusted revenue increased 6.6% to £1.4 billion (€1.66 billion).
Adjusted EBIT increased 10.0% to £176.5 million (+6.5% on a reported basis), with adjusted EBIT margin up 40bps to 12.6% (+90bps on a reported basis).
Adjusted earnings per share grew 2.5%, to 44.3p, impacted by a one-off deferred tax charge of £11.2 million.
Earlier this year, Britvic reported a 6.3% decline in adjusted revenue, to £617.1 million (€714.6 million), for the first half of its financial year ended 31 March 2021.
Outlook
The company is confident that it will continue to deliver consistent returns to shareholders.
Litherland added, “While there are multiple operational headwinds leading to increased inflation, we are confident we will mitigate them through a combination of our agile and resilient supply chain, revenue management, and cost-saving actions.
“In 2022, we anticipate making further progress with revenue, profit and margin ahead of 2021.”
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Dayeeta Das. For more A-Brands news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
