Despite the dire spring weather, Irn-Bru maker AG Barr pushed up sales in a flat soft drinks market and today said it remained keen to push ahead with a merger with its rival Britvic.
The Competition Commission is due to give its provisional findings on the potential £1.4 billion deal early next month.
Barr, which also makes Tizer and the Rubicon range of drinks, said sales in the first 15 weeks of the year were up 2.4%. That compares well with the overall market, which was flat, and with Britvic, which saw UK fizzy drink sales fall over the same period.
The company also said that it expects to open it new factory in Milton Keynes within the next eight weeks, which will eventually double the number of cans of drink it can produce and push up capacity for plastic bottled drinks by 40%.
Barr said: “As we now enter the key summer trading period, we anticipate that the marketplace will remain highly competitive. Our commercial and operational plans are well developed and we remain focused on delivering a strong result for the year.”
The case for the Britvic merger was as strong as ever, it said, adding that it would look again at the deal once the Competition Commission’s findings are published.
Barr said there had seen increased marketing and more special offers than usual in the fizzy drinks market in the first part of this year as it and its rivals battled against the bad weather.
