LONDON (dpa-AFX) - A.G. BARR Plc. (BAG.L), a soft drinks group, Friday said its half-year sales revenue is expected to be about 128 million pounds, which is down about 5 percent from the prior year.
In a pre-close trading update, the firm said that on an ongoing basis, allowing for the impact of the loss of the Orangina brand and the divested Findlays brand, sales declined by about 3.5 percent.
A.G. BARR said that in the six month period to date, trading has remained subdued as expected.
The combination of tough prior year comparatives and changes to market promotional phasing, related to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games activity, along with poor weather, particularly in the north of the UK, all had an impact on its sales performance.
A.G. BARR said its financial performance in the current financial year will be more weighted to the second half given its strong performance in the first half of last year, along with significant operational improvement program currently being implemented.
Looking ahead, the firm said, '...assuming there are no significant changes to the competitive or customer landscape and that we continue to make good progress on all our change initiatives, we plan to regain sales momentum which would enable us to meet our expectations for the full year.'
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX