Britvic expects financial bounce back Britvic says that revenues from its operations rose by 28.6 per cent to £454.7m during the 28-week period ending 13 April 2008, growing ahead of the overalls beverage market. The UK-based soft drink maker said that operating profit was up by 14.5 per cent to £55.2m for the half-year period, as its moves ahead with plans to cut costs and expand it existing portfolio of brands. Group chief executive Paul Moody said the company has shown a resilient performance over the period following the negative impacts of adverse UK weather conditions last summer on both its take home and food service operations. "The first half of our year has been a period of modest growth for the soft drinks market overall, with improving growth trends evident in the early weeks of the second half," he stated. "We are well positioned to drive group earnings growth through brand and product expansion, innovation, a continued close focus on cost control, and the realisation of the benefits of the outsourcing of retail distribution." Norwegians join UK bottled water wars A Norwegian bottled water manufacturer is this month set to launch in the burgeoning UK market to further expand its European presence. Isklar hopes to play up the strong environmental record of its source country as a key indicator to the products own purity. To this end, the group claims the water itself is filtered through glacier ice and aquifier rock to deliver a natural product with low mineral content. However, Isklar is expanding into an increasingly congested market place amidst continually strong demand in Europe. Bottled water sales are set to outgrow the once dominant carbonated beverage segment within two years, according to recent research by analyst Zenith International. If the current market growth continues, global consumption of the product is expected to grow to 251bn litres by 2011 from 187bn litres in 2006, Zenith added. This potential is coming in part from growing innovation within the bottled water market, particular for added-value waters that claim to offer nutritional or cosmetic benefits. In Western Europe alone, functional water consumption rose to an estimated 273m litres in 2006 from just 30m litres in 2000, according to Zenith.
