A.G. Barr performs strongly in year of plant closure and job losses

Announcing its financial results for the 12 months to 30 January, the maker of Irn Bru's chief executive Roger White said that despite the difficult economic climate, sales performance had been excellent and the acquisition of the Rubicon brand in 2008 had added a new dimension to the business. He went on: "Our sales growth continues to be underpinned by substantial investment in our brands and infrastructure. In the last year we have maintained a tight control of all our costs allowing us to improve margins once again. We continue to face an uncertain economic outlook with the additional challenge of substantial operational changes across 2010/11. However, looking forward we remain confident in our ability to deliver against our strategy." Sales in the first seven weeks of the new financial year were ahead of the same period last year, White added. In November A. G. Barr had announced further manufacturing investment plans and restructuring of both its operating platform and supply chain. These plans included a £10 million investment at its Cumbernauld site in production capacity, the outsourcing of a portion of the company's primary supply chain and the consequential closure of its Mansfield site. The company said that rationalisation was always difficult and in this case it would result in the loss of a number of jobs staffed by people who had many years service with A. G. Barr. During the year A. G. Barr said it had substantially outperformed the UK soft drinks market. Turnover increased by 18.7% to £201.4 million (2009 - £169.7m) while pre-tax profit increased by 20.8% to £27.9 million (2009 - £23.1m).