BRITVIC PLC LONDON (Reuters) - Britvic (>> Britvic Plc), the maker of Robinson's squash and Tango, said expected cost savings would keep it on course to meet full-year profit forecasts, after posting a slight fall in first quarter revenue on Tuesday.
The firm had warned in November that sales growth in 2015 would be impacted by fierce price wars among British supermarkets aiming to win over shoppers using discount stores.
Revenue in the 12 weeks to Dec. 21 fell 0.4 percent to 304.3 million pounds, Britvic said, with revenue in its core British arm down 1.4 percent after squash volumes fell.
Drinks sales in Ireland and France rose over 2 percent.
The company said marketing plans and expected cost savings this year meant it maintained guidance for a full-year operating profit of between 164 and 173 million pounds, versus 158.1 million pounds in 2014.
Britvic, which also makes and sells PepsiCo (>> PepsiCo, Inc.) brands such as Pepsi and 7UP in the UK, operates mainly in Britain, Ireland and France but has recently expanded into the United States, Spain and India with its children's Fruit Shoot brand.
Following a roll-out of it single-serve packages, it will launch Fruit Shoot multi packs in the U.S. in the second half of 2015, getting into the bigger market for large take-home packages.
Shares in Britvic closed at 646 pence on Monday, down 7.7 percent on a year ago, valuing the business at around 1.6 billion pounds.
(Reporting by Neil Maidment, editing by Louise Heavens)
