Soft drinks group AG Barr has aid trading remained “subdued” in the six months to 25 July with sales revenue down 5% to c£128m.
The company said that on an ongoing basis, allowing for the impact of the loss of the Orangina brand and the divested Findlays brand, sales declined by c.3.5%.
AG Barr said that despite the challenges of ongoing deflation across the soft drinks market and continued high levels of price promotion, margins remain in line with expectations.
The company said: “In the six month period to date trading has remained subdued as anticipated; the combination of tough prior year comparatives and changes to market promotional phasing, related to our Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games activity, along with poor weather, particularly in the north of the UK, have all had an impact on our sales performance. In addition, our Business Process Redesign project (BPR) and the subsequent transition to a new company wide system platform in early June has, as expected with a project of such scale and complexity, given us some short term customer service challenges which have also impacted our overall revenue performance.”
The company said that the closure of its Tredegar site, commissioning of carton packaging capability at Milton Keynes, the acquisition of Funkin Brands and the go-live of its BPR project, would “lay the foundations for further growth and operational improvement”. It said its objective for the second half of the year was to bring improved operational stability and growth to the business and to begin to realise the benefits associated with the changes being made.
