Britvic confirms soft drinks growth

Britvic said strong growth continued into the fourth quarter of its financial year to the point where full 52-week revenue increased by 5.6% to £978.8 million. Chief executive Paul Moody said: "Strong revenue growth achieved by selling more branded soft drinks at higher prices characterises our performance in the latest quarter and the full year. Compelling brand-equity programmes and strong innovation, supported by excellent execution at the point of sale, have been instrumental in our success. A re-engineered business in Ireland is, we believe, well placed to exploit market growth as it returns. "The combination of top-line growth and close management of costs mean that we will meet our recently-increased expectations for 2009. Additionally, despite the poor visibility of future market performance, we remain fully confident at this early stage that we have the momentum, brands and in-market execution to deliver another strong set of results for the year ahead."