LONDON: Britvic Plc, one of the leading branded soft drinks businesses in Europe, has confirmed that Britvic has now completed the sale of its juice assets in France to Refresco.
The sale, following approval by the French Competition Authority in July, includes the three juice manufacturing sites, related private label juice business and the Fruité brand.
Britvic retains ownership of the Pressade and Fruit Shoot brands, which will be manufactured by Refresco as part of a long-term partnership arrangement. The transaction will not affect the Teisseire and Moulin De Valdonne brands or the private label syrups business, all of which are all manufactured at the company’s production site in Crolles.
“This transaction supports our stated strategic priority to improve operating margins in our Western European markets, while also enables our teams to focus on growing our soft drinks portfolio of local favourite and global premium brands,” a news release said.
Britvic is one of the leading branded soft drinks businesses in Europe. The company combines its own leading brand portfolio including Fruit Shoot, Robinsons, Tango, J2O, London Essence, Teisseire and MiWadi with PepsiCo brands such as Pepsi, 7UP and Lipton Ice Tea which Britvic produces and sells in GB and Ireland under exclusive PepsiCo agreements.
Britvic is the largest supplier of branded still soft drinks in Great Britain (“GB”) and the number two supplier of branded carbonated soft drinks in GB. Britvic is an industry leader in the island of Ireland with brands such as MiWadi and Ballygowan, in France with brands such as Teisseire, Pressade and Moulin de Valdonne and in Brazil with Maguary, Bela Ischia and Dafruta. Britvic is growing its reach into other territories through franchising, export and licensing. Britvic’s management team has successfully developed the business through a clear strategy of organic growth and international expansion based on creating and building scale brands. Britvic is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the code BVIC and is a constituent of the FTSE250 index.