Irn Bru cuts 90 roles

Irn-Bru maker AG Barr announced plans to cut 90 jobs as it launched a blistering attack on the ‘punitive and unnecessary’ sugar tax in Britain.

The company said a shake-up of its structure will result in the loss of 10pc of its workforce by the end of the year.

Barr posted a 3.6pc slide in revenues to £125.6m for the six months to the end of July. Profit edged up from £16.9m to £17m.

Chief executive roger White hit out at the proposed £530m sugar tax which could add up to 24p to the price of a litre of soft drink.

‘We believe this proposed tax is a punitive and unnecessary distortion to competition in the uK market which will be very complex, expensive and difficult to implement,’ he said.

White added that the company’s new Irn-Bru Xtra drink, which has no added sugar, is ‘performing well at this early stage’.

Shares fell 0.9pc or 4.5p to 518p.