Britvic growth stymied by CO2 shortage

Fizzy drinks maker Britvic said it was held back from fully capitalising on the hot weather in the third quarter due to the UK shortage of carbon dioxide.

Still, the FTSE 250 company saw revenues bubble up 3.4% to £366.9m in the period from 16 April to 8 July.

"Whilst the industry-wide shortage of carbon dioxide held back our ability to fully capitalise on the exceptional weather in GB and Ireland, we leveraged the breadth and strength of our portfolio to moderate the impact," said chief executive Simon Litherland. "Consequently, we remain confident of achieving market expectations for the full year."

To ensure continuity of supply across all trading channels, the company temporarily scaled back promotional activity and reallocated some of secondary feature space to still drinks, which saw sales surge 11.9%.

CO2 supply has now normalised, the company said, enabling it to start rebuilding stock levels and gradually reintroduce promotions.

Overall, sales in Britain fizzed up 8.0%, with carbonates revenue increasing 6.1% as its Britvic-bottling deal saw Pepsi continue to gain market share, while underlying performance was said to continue the recent improvement, led by strong growth for still brands Robinsons and J20.