Shortage of carbon dioxide takes the fizz out of Britvic
ROBINSONS SQUASH firm Britvic has said Britain’s recent carbon dioxide crisis hit its fizzy drink sales and left it unable to make the most of surging demand amid the summer heatwave.
The company said UK sales of fizzy drinks, excluding the new soft drinks sugar tax, fell 2.9 per cent in the three months to July 8 due to the CO2 woes.
It was forced to switch promotions to its still drinks ranges, which saw sales jump 11.7 per cent stripping out the sugar tax impact.
This helped UK sales overall rise 8 per cent, or 1.9 per cent higher excluding the sugar tax, while underlying group sales fell 0.6 per cent in the quarter.
Including the sugar tax, group revenues rose 3.4 per cent.
The group – which also bottles Pepsi in the UK and Ireland –said CO2 supplies are now back to normal and it has started rebuilding its stock levels and launching further fizzy drink promotions.
Simon Litherland, chief executive of Britvic, said: “Whilst the industry-wide shortage of carbon dioxide held back our ability to fully capitalise on the exceptional weather in Great Britain and Ireland, we leveraged the breadth and strength of our portfolio to moderate the impact. Consequently, we remain confident of achieving market expectations for the full year.”
Britain’s fizzy drink shortage was caused by a raft of closures of factories producing the gas as a by-product of the fertiliser industry.
Factories normally close temporarily for maintenance in the summer, but this year too many plants across Europe shut at the same time, leaving CO2 supplies woefully short.
In its update, Britvic said it was unable to fully gauge the impact of the UK soft drinks sugar tax, which was introduced in April, given the CO2 shortage and the recent boost from warm weather.