Company type | Public |
---|---|
LSE: BVIC FTSE 250 Component | |
Industry | Soft drinks |
Founded | 1938 |
Headquarters | Hemel Hempstead, England, UK |
Key people |
|
Products | Fruit Shoot Licensee: Lipton |
Brands | Club Orange |
Revenue | £1,748.6 million (2023) [1] |
£181.5 million (2023) [1] | |
£124.0 million (2023) [1] | |
Number of employees | 4,537 (2023) [1] |
Subsidiaries | Robinsons |
Website | www |
Britvic plc is a British producer of soft drinks based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It produces soft drinks under its own name, and several other brands.
The company was founded in the 1930s in Chelmsford as the British Vitamin Products Company. [2] [3] It started producing fruit juices in 1938 and started marketing them under the Britvic name in 1949. [4] Acquired by Showerings of Shepton Mallet, and subsequently a division of Allied Breweries from 1968, the company changed its name to Britvic in 1971. In 1986, it merged with Canada Dry Rawlings and acquired the R. White's Lemonade brand. It acquired Tango and the Corona brand from Beechams in 1987 and since that year it has also owned the UK franchise for Pepsi and 7 Up. [5] In 1995, it bought Robinson's from Reckitt & Colman. [6]
In December 2005, the company underwent an initial public offering (IPO) allowing its main shareholders (InterContinental Hotels Group, Whitbread, Pernod Ricard) to realise their investments. [7] In May 2007, the Company bought the soft drinks and distribution businesses of Ireland's Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C) for £169.5m. [8]
On 14 November 2012, the company announced plans to merge with Scotland's soft drink's producer A.G. Barr, whose brands include Irn-Bru, Tizer and D'n'B, which would have created one of Europe's largest soft drinks companies. [9] The merger was put into serious doubt [10] [11] after the Office of Fair Trading referred the merger to the Competition Commission. [12] On 11 July 2013, A.G. Barr Chairman Ronnie Hanna announced that the proposed merger of Britvic and A.G. Barr had been abandoned. [13]
In May 2017, PepsiCo announced that it had decided to sell up to all of its long-held 4.5 per cent stake in Britvic. [14]
Most of the company's operations are concentrated in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the company exports to over 50 countries. Its corporate headquarters moved from Chelmsford, Essex to Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, in March 2012. [15]
The drink brands the company owns in the UK include Britvic mixers, R. White's Lemonade, Tango, Robinson's and J2O – as well as being the licensed bottler for PepsiCo products within the UK. In 2008, Britvic launched Gatorade in the UK, after securing the rights to do so from PepsiCo. In May 2010, Britvic launched a UK specific version of the popular drink, Mountain Dew Energy. It tastes similar to its American counterpart, but has a lower caffeine and sugar content. [16]
After their failed IPO C&C's sold their soft drink brands to Britvic, resulting in the company now owning a number of brands in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including, Ballygowan Water, Britvic, Cidona, MiWadi, and Energise Sport as well as the rights to the Pepsi and 7 Up brands in the territory through its bottling agreements with PepsiCo. [17]
Britvic bought Fruité Entreprises in May 2010 for £298 million. It has since renamed the business Britvic France. It is mainly a fruit juice business, unlike the GB&I businesses that focus on soft drinks. [18]
In 2015, Britvic acquired ebba (Empresa Brasileira de Bebidas e Alimentos SA), located in São Paulo, [19] and in 2017 Bela Ischia, located in Rio de Janeiro. [20]
Current brands are as follows: [1]
Dilutes
Water
Carbonated soft drinks
Other
Licensed from PepsiCo
Irn-Bru is a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink". Introduced in 1901, the drink is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of Glasgow. As well as being sold throughout the United Kingdom, Irn-Bru is available throughout the world and can usually be bought where there is a significant community of people from Scotland. The brand also has its own tartan. It has been the top-selling soft drink in Scotland for over a century, competing directly with global brands such as Coca-Cola.
Ribena is a brand of blackcurrant-based soft drink, and fruit drink concentrate designed to be mixed with water. It is available in bottles, cans and multi-packs. Originally of English origin, it was produced by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) until 2013, when the brand was sold to Japanese beverage conglomerate Suntory.
Tango is a carbonated soft drink originating in the United Kingdom, primarily sold in the UK and Ireland. It was first launched by Corona in 1950. Corona was purchased by the Beecham Group in 1958, and Corona Soft Drinks by Britvic in 1987.
Squash, is a non-alcoholic beverage with concentrated syrup used in beverage making. It is usually fruit-flavoured, made from fruit juice, water, and sugar or a sugar substitute. Modern squashes may also contain food colouring and additional flavouring. Some traditional squashes contain herbal extracts, most notably elderflower and ginger.
A.G. Barr plc, commonly known as Barr's, is a Scottish soft drink and energy drink manufacturer based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland widely known for manufacturing the drink Irn-Bru. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Minute Maid is an American product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy brand in Central Europe and under the brand "Моя Семья" in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Minute Maid was the first company to market frozen orange juice concentrate, allowing it to be distributed throughout the United States and served year-round. The Minute Maid Company is owned by The Coca-Cola Company, the world's largest marketer of fruit juices and drinks. The firm opened its headquarters in Sugar Land Town Square in Sugar Land, Texas, United States, on February 16, 2009; previously it was headquartered in the 2000 St. James Place building in Houston.
Orange soft drinks are carbonated orange drinks.
Tropicana Brands is an American fruit-based beverage company. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021 it was a subsidiary of PepsiCo. In August 2021, 61% of Tropicana was sold along with the rest of PepsiCo's juice brand portfolio for $3.3 billion to PAI Partners. PepsiCo retained the remaining 39% of the companies ownership.
Fruitopia is a fruit-flavored drink introduced by the Coca-Cola Company's successful Minute Maid brand in 1994 and targeted at teens and young adults. According to New York Times business reports, it was invented as part of a push by Minute Maid to capitalize on the success of Snapple and other flavored tea drinks. The brand gained substantial hype in the mid-1990s before enduring lagging sales by decade's end. While still available in Canada and Australia as a juice brand, in 2003, Fruitopia was phased out in most of the United States where it had struggled for several years. However, select flavors have since been revamped under Minute Maid. Use of the Fruitopia brand name continues through various beverages in numerous countries, including some McDonald's restaurant locations in the United States, which carry the drink to this day.
Club is the brand name for a series of Irish carbonated soft drinks produced in Ireland by Britvic Ireland and previously by Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C). It is bottled by the Britvic plant in Dublin. The series includes Club Orange, Club Lemon, Club Rock Shandy and Club Apple soft drinks.
Frucor is a Japanese-owned beverage company operating in Australasia, and headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The company is known for its V energy drink launched in 1997, which is sold across the world including Europe, South Africa and Argentina. Frucor has joint partners PepsiCo, Danone, and Sanitarium so their products are marketed by Frucor.
Gerald Michael Nolan Corbett DL is a businessman who was the chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). A businessman, over a long career he has been a director of thirteen public companies, seven of which he has chaired. He is currently chairman of Segro plc, the FTSE 100 international industrial property logistics group. He chaired Britvic plc for 12 years until September 2017. Britvic plc is the international soft drink company whose brands include Robinsons squash, J2O, Tango, Fruit Shoot, Ballygowan water and is also a bottler for PepsiCo. As chairman he led the flotation of Britvic in 2005. He was chairman of Betfair plc between 2012 and 2016 when Betfair merged with Paddy Power plc to create Paddy Power Betfair.
Appletiser is a sparkling fruit juice created by blending fruit juice with carbonated water. It was created in 1966 in Elgin Valley, Western Cape, South Africa, by French-Italian immigrant Edmond Lombardi. Whilst Appletiser is primarily sold in its home market of South Africa, the brand is also exported to more than 20 other countries, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as the UK, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
Robinsons is a British fruit drink brand owned by Britvic. Robinsons was owned by Reckitt & Colman until 1995 when it was acquired by Britvic. The Robinsons range includes Fruit Shoot, Fruit Squash, No Added Sugar Fruit Squash, Fruit & Barley, Barley water, Select and Squash'd; the range formerly also included Fruit Spring. For the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Strawberry and Cream was added to the range.
Barr Britvic Soft Drinks plc was a proposed company to be founded by the merger between two British soft drink manufacturers, A.G. Barr and Britvic. Former Britvic shareholders were to own 63 per cent of the combined entity, whilst Barr shareholders would have held 37 per cent. Measured by revenue, it would have been one of the largest soft drinks companies in Europe. The company would have had annual sales of more than £1.5 billion and would have employed around 4,300 staff.
Teisseire is a French manufacturer and brand of flavoured syrups. Although primarily used for creating soft drinks when diluted with water, they are also used in making cocktails and flavoured coffee. The company was founded in Grenoble in 1720 by Mathieu Teisseire and remained in his immediate family until the mid-19th century. After François Reynaud purchased the company in 1907, it was run by four generations of the Reynaud family until 2004 when it was acquired by Fruité Entreprises. Since 2010 the company has been owned by the British soft drinks manufacturer and distributor Britvic. Teisseire's main manufacturing plant is situated in Crolles near Grenoble. Although the company's products are now exclusively non-alcoholic, it was originally famous for its cherry liqueur, Ratafia de Teisseire, which was manufactured well into the 20th century.