London, Jul. 25 - Soft drinks group Britvic said on Friday it is confident of achieving full-year earnings in line with market expectations but warned conditions in the licensed on-premise market will remain challenging.
The firm, Britain's second-biggest soft drinks maker behind Coca-Cola Enterprises, reported a 3.7 percent rise in sales in the 40 weeks to July 6, excluding a first-time contribution from Britvic Ireland, boosted by strong growth in sales of still drinks such as Robinsons, J20, and Fruit Shoot.
Market expectations for pretax profit for the full year range between 66.8-71 million pounds, with the consensus at 69.1 million, according to a Reuters poll of six analysts.
Brivic said it had outperformed the overall stills market in a number of key categories in the 40-week period, including squash, juice drinks, water, and sports drinks, including newly-launched Gatorade.
In the UK stills revenue grew by 4.3 percent over the nine months while carbonates grew sales by 2.5 percent, driven by a "particularly strong" performance from Pepsi.
Britvic has the rights to sell Pepsi in the UK and Ireland and has stated its intention to look for additional franchises in Western Europe.
Including the contribution from Britvic Ireland, which incorporates the business Britvic purchased from C&C Group for 170 million pounds last year, Britvic reported revenues of 690 million pounds ($1.37 billion), an increase of 29.9 percent. Britvic Ireland contributed 147.2 million.