Britvic bottles up improved revenue in first half

Britvic posted its interim results for the 28 weeks to 16 April on Wednesday, reporting an 11.5% increase in revenue to £756.3m.

The FTSE 250 company said pre-exceptional EBITA was up 6.7% to £73.6m, while organic revenue improved 3.7% and organic pre-exceptional EBITA was 5.1% higher.

Profit after tax decreased, however, by 4.9% to £38.6m, which the board said was impacted by £5.8m of exceptionals and other items.

Adjusted earnings per share were up 9.2% at 18.9p, and the board declared a 2.9% lift in the interim dividend per share to 7.2p.

“Britvic has delivered a strong first half performance driven by organic revenue growth in all our markets and successful management of input cost inflation,” said chief executive officer Simon Litherland.

“We have continued to make progress delivering our strategic priorities and have exciting commercial plans for the second half of the year.

“I am confident that we will deliver full year performance in line with market expectations.”

Gerald Corbett to hand over Britvic reins to John Daly

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, Britvic said John Daly, currently senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee, would succeed Gerald Corbett as chairman with effect from 1 September.

The company said Corbett, who had served as chairman of Britvic since the company's flotation in November 2005, would retire from the Board on 1 September 2017.

It confirmed Daly joined the board of Britvic plc in January 2015 as an independent non-executive director and became senior independent director and chairman of the remuneration committee in January last year.

He had more than 30 years of “extensive international business and management” experience having held a variety of senior leadership roles, most notably at British American Tobacco.

Britvic said his most recent positions at BAT were chief operating officer from 2010 to 2014, and regional director for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, from 2004 to 2010.

Prior to his time at BAT, Daly held various sales and marketing positions with Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pennwalt Corporation and Schering-Plough.

He currently also served as a non-executive director on the boards of Wolseley and G4S.

As a result of Daly's appointment, the board said it would make two further changes to its composition, effective from 1 September.

Ian McHoul would succeed Daly as senior independent director, having been an independent non-executive director of the company and chair of the audit committee since March 2014.

He would remain chair of the audit committee and a member of the nomination and remuneration committees.

Sue Clark would succeed John Daly as chair of the remuneration committee., having been an independent non-executive director and a member of the remuneration committee since February last year.

“I am delighted to succeed Gerald Corbett as chairman,” said John Daly.

“Britvic is an excellent business, with a portfolio of great brands and highly committed people, delivering strong progress against its strategic priorities despite challenging external market conditions.

“I look forward to taking on the chairmanship and continuing to work with the Company as it builds on another strong set of results.”

Gerald Corbett commented that chairing Britvic had been a “privilege”.

“Having seen enormous progress made since the company's flotation, I feel this is a good time to hand over to a new chair to take the company through the next phase of its development.”

Corbett said he was “pleased” the company had someone of John's “calibre and experience” to take on the role.

“I am sure John will enjoy working with Britvic's capable and committed management team as much as I have and I wish John and the Board every success for the future.”