Netherlands-based drinks bottler Refresco has announced that revenue for the first six months of 2017 increased to €1,166 million, compared to €1,007 million in the same period last year.
In the second quarter, volume increased 20.5% to 2,052 million litres, driven by acquisitions, while organic volume growth was 2.8%.
However, adjusted EBITDA fell from €68 million to €66 million, and adjusted earnings per share decreased marginally to €0.34.
"We are pleased to report strong volume growth in Europe and the US driven by acquisitions and organic growth," said Refresco CEO Hans Roelofs. "On a like-for-like basis volume in retail brands remained stable and contract manufacturing for A-brands was up double digit."
"Volume fluctuations in the quarter and significant startup costs of recently installed production lines affected our results."
Cott Acquisition
Last month, the company announced its acquisition of Cott's bottling business for $1.25 billion, consisting of 24 production sites in North America and five in the UK. Refresco says that that the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017, and has 'significant synergy potential' of around €47 million.
"In July we announced the acquisition of Cott's bottling activities transforming Refresco into the world's largest independent bottler," said Roelofs.
"In combining the two companies we create nationwide coverage in the US - the largest single soft drinks market globally - while adding significant capacity and extending our broad product portfolio in the UK."
"It taps into the expected private label growth in the US enabling us to support further growth of our core customers and it creates a US national platform for contract manufacturing."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
