Britvic’s full-year profits and sales have jumped as chief executive Simon Litherland praised the company’s “excellent” performance with strong growth among brands such as Pepsi, Tango and Lipton.

In the year to 30 September, the soft drink manufacturer’s EBIT soared 14.9% to £250.9m as sales surged 8.6% to £1.8bn and volume inched up 3.1%, bolstered by organic growth and the Extra Power and Jimmy’s Iced Coffee brand acquisitions.

In the UK, growth was further fuelled by individual brand successes including plant-based milk and shots brand Plenish, where sales more than doubled compared to the previous year, aided by new campaigns and product launches.

From success through NPD and breakthrough brands, to investment in marketing and a healthier portfolio, we caught up with Britvic GB managing director Paul Graham to find out how the Robinsons owner will be scaling its growth plans for the year ahead.

Photo: In 2024 Jimmy’s Coffee experimented with innovation through the launch of a new offering in partnership with Myprotein

Following the positive performance this year, Graham says that in 2025, a significant portion of the soft drink producer’s innovation efforts will be focused on the team of ‘Breakthrough brands’ it has identified as having “particularly strong growth opportunities”. These include Plenish, premium mixers brand London Essence, water brand Aqua Libra and Jimmy’s Iced Coffee.

This financial year, the brands saw overall net sales grow by 52% and in particular Plenish, which was acquired only three years ago, saw its sales skyrocket by over 101%, which Graham cited as a combination of distribution growth, increased rate of sale and innovation around the brand.

Meanwhile, Jimmy’s experienced brand value growth of 15% in the latest 26 weeks versus category growth of 1.7%, and London Essence saw sales in Great Britain grow 37.6% on last year.

Graham said branded innovation helped fuel this growth, as the Plenish Shots range benefited from new launches such as Mango Sunshine and Beet Balance. Likewise, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, which was also only acquired last summer, launched a  new offering in partnership with protein brand Myprotein, as well as a larger 380ml BottleCan pack size and a new limited edition Cinnamon Roll flavour.

Across its more established brands, in May, Britvic launched a limited-edition Pepsi Electric – a citrus cola with blue liquid and Tango launched a sugar-free Cherry flavour in August. Meanwhile, Robinsons expanded its cordials range with two new flavours in Elderflower and Ginger & Orange, and collaborated with the movie adaptation of Wicked for limited edition Glinda Berry and Citrus Elphaba flavoured drinks.

Asked whether growth was primarily driven through the breakthrough brands or the more established brands, Graham said Britvic’s success was through a “combination” of both divisions.

He explained: “It’s the beautiful thing about the business, the strength of the portfolio, and the strength of our performance has been being able to deliver across all of that.

“Obviously, having the scale of Pepsi or Tango, then being able to then have strong innovation platforms where we see new consumer trends or new data occasions coming through, we’re developing and building brands in those spaces as well.

“Being able to run a strong operational performance with the investment we put into our supply chain to enable us to service the market, both in terms of capacity, but also to do that within a cost efficient way, enables us to deliver great results, but also continue to invest back in the business.”

Photo: Plant-milk and shot brand Plenish’s addition to Britvic’s portfolio signals a new “healthier” direction for the company.

Britvic also plans to have a continued focus on serving healthier consumers in the year ahead, pointing to its low calorie drinks with an average of only 21 calories per serve.

Describing the direction as “leadership in healthier consumer choices”, he added it would be investing further in its portfolio of healthier options of its family favourite brands, following this year’s launch of Tango’s sugar-free Cherry flavour.

However, Graham maintained that the company’s shift to a healthier portfolio was an organic move reflecting Britvic’s prioritisation of its consumers’ health and popular demand, and not a response to changes in the UK sugar regulations, with the government’s sugar levy having recently increased during last month’s October Budget.

He said: “I think [the decision] is definitely due to organic consumer demand. We are a consumer led business. So we really look at the consumer to lead our choices and decisions.

“We have already made numerous decisions within our portfolio management to reduce our sugar content before the soft drinks industry levy came into regulation.

“When the levy was introduced, 94% of our brands were already below or exempted the sugar Levy, so it really didn’t have that big of an impact on us.”

Alongside promoting a healthier portfolio, Graham also pointed towards the company’s sustainable business practices, named ‘Healthier People, Healthier Planet’, which are embedded throughout its business strategy.

The company unveiled a power purchase agreement to deliver clean energy, which has led to 75% of the National Grid electricity used to make its brands in Great Britain coming from solar generation, as well as a 160-acre solar farm in Northamptonshire, which has led to a 35% reduction in its carbon emissions so far.

It is understood that such infrastructure upgrades will continue to boost the brands mission to reduce its group energy consumption in 2025 and beyond.

Photo: This year, Plenish kicked off its marketing drive with the launch of its first-ever brand campaign in a bid to showcase its new holistic range.

Alongside investment into innovation, Britvic chief executive Litherland said the company will continue to invest in marketing “to ensure the business is fit for the future”.

Addressing its progress this year, Britvic hailed its recent campaign with Pepsi as an example of successful marketing that it plans launch in 2025. In March the company showcased a nationwide 360-degree campaign through billboards, digital takeovers, in-store activation, a new TV advertisement and social media content, alongside brand ambassadors including Jack Grealish and Leah Williamson.

Other brand collaborations include Robinsons’ association with The Hundred Cricket, rolling out an on-pack promotion across the squash range for the first time alongside the ready-to-drink format, while its NPD collaboration with Wicked also extended to Robinsons consumer competitions.

Speaking about future opportunities, Graham said Britvic will continue to invest in its emerging brands through disruptive marketing, and referred to Plenish’s media campaign, which extended to TV for the first time with a six-month partnership as the sponsor of Channel 4’s breakfast programming. The advertising ran alongside its poster campaign, designed to highlight credentials and build brand awareness.

As Britvic pushes ahead with its plans to innovate with new flavours and cleaner options, the drink giant has a healthy appetite for growth.