Soft drinks group AG Barr has revealed a fall in like-for-like sales of 2.8% in the six months to 30 July with total revenue down to £125.6m (2015: £130.3m).
However, the group said that its Funkin cocktail mixer business continued to perform ahead of expectations with revenue up 28% in the period.
Chief executive Roger White said: “We have delivered a solid first half performance, maintaining market share, improving our operating margin with a slight improvement in our pre-exceptional profit versus the prior year. This is despite continued price deflation in the UK market, a challenging customer and consumer environment as well as poor weather in the important early summer months leading up to the end of the reporting period.
“Good progress has been made across the key areas of innovation, product reformulation, brand development and operational efficiency. We will continue to focus on these areas throughout the second half of the financial year.
“Following our significant investment in assets, infrastructure and systems, delivered through our Fit for the Future business improvement programme, we are announcing the programme’s final phase, a business reorganisation which will create a faster, more efficient and leaner organisational structure.
“We are beginning to see the benefits of our product development and innovation initiatives with both consumers and customers. Market conditions remain volatile and somewhat unpredictable however, assuming a strong trading performance in the key festive period, we remain on track to deliver profit (before tax and exceptionals) slightly ahead of last year.”
