News
25 November 2009
Britvic plc ("Britvic") today announces its Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ended 27th September 2009 ("the period"). Numbers in this announcement are all quoted before exceptional items, except where stated otherwise.
The Board is proposing a final dividend per share of 10.9p bringing the full year dividend per share to 15.0p, an increase of 19.0% on the prior year. This reflects the two-times dividend-cover policy, the Board's continuing confidence in the future prospects of the business and the underlying cash-generative nature of its activities.
"Britvic's very strong performance has delivered double-digit operating profit and earnings growth. The GB & International business has now achieved eight consecutive quarters of revenue growth since 2006, resulting in revenue CAGR of 6% and operating profit CAGR of 11%.
Over the last year our brands have grown market share across all key categories and our portfolio has been strengthened by successful innovation. We are successfully re-engineering our business in Ireland to take advantage of eventual market recovery, whilst realising expected synergies.
Recent conditions in the GB soft drink market have shown some signs of improvement, although visibility in both GB and Ireland beyond the short term remains limited and we take a cautious view of consumer spending. However, we are encouraged by our strong group performance in the early weeks of the new financial year, building on our track record of top-line, margin and quality earnings growth".
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There will be a live-webcast of the presentation given today at 11.00am by Paul Moody (Chief Executive) and John Gibney (Group Finance Director). The webcast will be available at www.britvic.com, with a transcript available in due course. There will also be a conference call today at 2.30pm (9.30am Eastern Standard Time) for investors and analysts with an opportunity to ask questions.
A recording of both calls will be available for seven days.
Britvic is one of the two leading branded soft drinks businesses in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The Company is the largest supplier of branded still soft drinks in Great Britain, and the number two supplier of branded carbonates.
Britvic's broad portfolio of leading brands includes established names with high brand recognition such as Robinsons, Tango, J2O and Fruit Shoot. Included within the portfolio are the PepsiCo brands which Britvic produces, markets, sells and distributes under its exclusive appointments from PepsiCo. This brand and product portfolio enables Britvic to target and satisfy a wide range of consumer demands in all major soft drinks categories, via all available routes to market.
This announcement includes statements that are forward-looking in nature. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by the Listing Rules and applicable law, Britvic undertakes no obligation to update or change any forward-looking statements to reflect events occurring after the date such statements are published.
Britvic Ireland reports on a monthly basis in comparison to the rest of the Britvic group of companies which report on thirteen 4-week periods. There are no immediate plans to change this reporting structure.
Take-home market data referred to in this announcement is supplied by AC Nielsen and runs to 26th September 2009.
Please note: Irish volumes and ARP shown refer only to owned brands. Revenue also includes that derived from the sale of third-party brands within the wholesaling division.
(1) EBITDA is defined as operating profit before exceptional items, depreciation, amortisation and any impairment of or gain / loss on disposal of fixed assets.
(2) Adjusted net debt is defined as net group debt, adding back the foreign exchange impact of derivatives hedging the balance sheet debt.
(3) Earnings Per Share is based on the number of issued shares excluding any own shares held by Britvic that are used to satisfy various employee share-based incentive programmes. For the financial year 2009, this number of available shares was 214.9m. For the financial year 2008, this number of shares was 214.0m.
(4) Free cashflow is defined as net cashflow excluding movements in borrowings, dividend payments and exceptional items.
(5) Return on invested capital (ROIC) - ROIC is a performance indicator used by Management and defined as operating profit after tax before exceptional items as a percentage of invested capital. Invested capital is defined as non-current assets plus current assets less current liabilities, excluding all balances relating to interest bearing liabilities and all other assets or liabilities associated with the financing and capital structure of the group and excluding any deferred tax balances and effective hedges relating to interest-bearing liabilities. Our previous definition of ROIC included within assets the impact of cross currency interest rate swaps. This has now been adjusted to align with our adjusted net debt definition, giving a more accurate reflection of the true position. This change does not significantly impact on the trends we have seen previously.
All numbers in this announcement other than where stated or included within the financial statements are disclosed before exceptional items.
The auditors have reported on the 2009 and 2008 accounts. Their reports for both years were unqualified and did not contain statements under section 237 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985 or section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.
View the full press release in PDF format.
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