Still drinks help Britvic stop the rot
back ground in the third quarter, as the group hints at further
moves into juice and water.
Britvic, the maker of Tango and Robinsons soft drinks, said a 7.5 per cent sales rise for still drinks had offset a 5.8 per cent decline in the fizzy division over the last 20 weeks.
The announcement shows Britvic has reversed some of the rot from its first half, which saw profits slump by 32 per cent and the group admit that it had underestimated the consumer shift away from carbonated soft drinks.
A good FIFA World Cup, unlike the England football team, as well as record temperatures in July, bolstered carbonates over the summer.
But, it was non-carbonated drinks that have driven growth, and particularly Fruit Shoot H20, Britvic's children's water brand launched in May.
Concerns over health have seen consumers in the UK increasingly turn to non-carbonated drinks to avoid the high sugar content of many fizzy varieties.
Juice and water sales have shot up as a consequence, and Britvic hinted it was actively seeking to improve its presence in these areas.
"The total stills market continues to be led by categories such as pure juice where Britvic has yet to develop a presence, and water where Britvic has only recently entered the category," the group said this week.
Britvic recently appointed consultant group Nunwood to carry out product and concept testing into a new range of innovative soft drinks.
"What we are looking at first of all is consumer perceptions and what they want from soft drinks now," said a Britvic spokesperson to BeverageDaily.com, who declined to comment on specifics.
