Given his insistence that Britvic’s first-quarter trading update represented “a solid start to the new financial year”, Simon Litherland must have been scratching his head yesterday at the subsequent fall of more than 6 per cent in the share price.
The issue appears to be costs. Britvic predicted that its “business capability programme”, involving the closure of its Norwich factory and the introduction of new bottling lines and warehousing in Rugby, would incur about £35 million to £40 million of one-off costs this year.
That’s quite a hefty hit, although Mr Litherland, chief executive of the the Robinsons and Pepsi producer, pointed out that the programme would deliver significant cost and commercial benefits.
The group also warned investors that the recent administration of Palmer