Britvic has reported Q3 sales growth of 4.4% in the UK thanks to a focus on value over volume.
The company said that carbonates sales revenue grew by 2.1%, with value growth of 4.2% more than offsetting a volume decline of 2.0%. Across the quarter we saw continued elevated levels of competitor promotional activity.
GB stills revenue was up 8.0%, driven by value growth of 8.6% and despite a volume decline of 0.6%. Sales of Fruit Shoot continued to accelerate as planned, but were lower than last year.
In Ireland, the group’s Q3 revenue decreased by 5.5%. It said that overall revenue was down due to the continued decline of the third-party brands in the licensed wholesale business.
International Q3 revenue increased by 25%. It said that Fruit Shoot roll out to 32 US states led to substantial growth in concentrate sales which was reflected in the ARP increase of 29%.
The group said that throughout the quarter it continued to focus on building stronger brand equity with campaigns such as Robinsons Wimbledon and Pepsi Beyoncé, aligned with an “effective price promotion strategy and higher levels of marketing investment”.
Simon Litherland, Chief Executive, commented:”Whilst quarter-three continued to be a challenging consumer environment, we maintained our focus on building brand value with a substantially stronger marketing programme, which included our annual Robinsons Wimbledon campaign and Pepsi’s sponsorship of Beyoncé. As a result we have successfully driven an increase in average realised price and grown revenue by 4%.
“These results combined with strong sales in the early weeks of quarter-four, reinforce our confidence that we will deliver EBIT for the full year at the upper end of our guidance range of £125-£131m. We are now fully focused on executing the strategy that I outlined at the interims.”
Britvic will publish its 52-week trading update on 17 October 2013.
