Nichols acquires a 49% equity stake in Noisy Drinks

Noisy Drinks distributes slush drinks under the Starslush brand and had an annual turnover of £6.6m in its last financial year.

Nichols portfolio includes Vimto, Levi Roots, Sunkist and Panda and it will share synergies with Noisy Drinks.

According to a N+1 Singer analyst noted the acquisition of Noisy Drinks is a good opportunity with it being 1-2% earnings enhancing before any sales synergies. For this reason N+1 Singer sees fair value in Nichols stock as 1230p.

John Nichols, the non-executive chairman of Nichols, was scheduled to speak at the company's annual general meeting which was to be held later on Wednesday, at 11.00 am.

He was to announce that trading for the first quarter of 2015 is higher than last year. Nichols expects the rest of the year to be challenging so full-year growth is expected to come from value rather than volume growth.

The company has started a Vimto sales drive in the Mid-lands.