Fizzy drinks fuelled solid growth in profits for soft drinks group AG Barr, despite a flat performance by waters, juices and smoothies.

Like-for-like pre-tax profits climbed by 9.7% to £23.4m, based on sales of £169.7m, up 6.6%.

Strong sales of Irn-Bru, up 8% year-on-year, helped drive the growth, while energy drink sales grew by 11%. But the company’s still division saw volumes fall 4.5%, with bottled waters particularly hard-hit, down 10% since last year.

“Over the last 12 months we have seen substantial growth in both sales revenues and profit despite a further summer of poor weather and the difficult economic environment,” said chief executive Roger White.

“We are now benefiting from our continued investments in brands and people as well as the restructuring activity which we have undertaken in recent years.

“Like-for-like sales in the first seven weeks of the new financial year are ahead of the same period last year.”

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