"This performance is ahead of the UK soft drinks market and has been achieved against last year’s strong comparatives (18% uplift on 2010), a challenging UK economy and record wet weather,”claimed a company statement.
A.C. Nielsen statistics reveal the UK market increased in value by 3.2% for the year to December 8 2012 with underlying volume down 0.6%.
The UK business increased sales by 10% compared with the previous year and export sales rose by 8%.
Promotional activity
“Despite another year of significant cost inflation and high levels of promotional activity, we expect, as a minimum, to maintain our operating margins,” said the firm. “This has been achieved by a combination of good cost control and ongoing productivity improvements,” it claimed.
Damian McNeela, analyst with Panmure Gordon said the results reflected further growth in its core Vimto brand along with its recently in-licensed brands such as Levi Roots and Weight Watchers.
