A.G.Barr, the soft drinks group, has released its final results for the year to 26 January 2013 showing robust performance, and excellent prospects with or without Britvic.
Chief Executive
Roger White commented:
“A.G.Barr has delivered a robust financial performance and continued to grow well ahead of the UK soft drinks market in the period. This once more proves the resilience of our operating model and the potential of our brands. Across the year, market conditions have remained difficult, specifically impacted by poor summer weather and further cost of goods inflation.
“Despite the added distraction of the merger discussions with Britvic plc, the business has remained focused and delivered all of the ‘business as usual’ operating plans across the year.
“We are now entering a period of significant workload associated with the Competition Commission enquiry, however the AG Barr board considers there to be a compelling rationale for clearance and that the benefits of the transaction remain significant for both shareholder groups.
“While we await the Competition Commission’s findings, we will continue to build and develop our plans to ensure the long term success of A G Barr as a standalone business. Our new operating capacity at Milton Keynes will come on-stream during the summer of 2013 and our investment in our brands and sales execution activities will continue unabated. We remain confident in our future prospects both as a standalone business and combined with Britvic plc.”
Highlights
- Turnover increased by 6.6% to £237.6m
- Profit on ordinary activities increased by 4.3% to £35.0m
- Underlying earnings per share increased by 10.9%
- IRN-BRU, Barr, Rubicon and KA all grew in the period’ Rockstar performed particularly strongly
- Robust financial position: net assets increasing to £130.6m; ROCE over 20%; strong underlying free cash flow of £22.0m
- New production and warehouse facility at Crossley, Milton Keynes progressing to plan and expected to be operational summer 2013
- Total dividend for year of 10.02p per share, an increase of 7.6% over prior year
- Working with Competition Commission during its investigation to seek clearance of the possible merger with Britvic