By Adria Calatayud
Britvic PLC said Thursday that pretax profit for fiscal 2020 rose slightly as lower costs offset a revenue decline, but warned that coronavirus restrictions will continue to affect its performance in the first half of the current year.
For the year ended Sept. 30, the U.K. soft-drinks maker--which houses the Fruit Shoot, Robinsons, Tango and J2O brands--made a pretax profit of 111.2 million pounds ($148.9 million) compared with GBP110.3 million a year before.
Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes--one of the company's preferred metrics, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--fell 22% to GBP165.8 million.
Britvic's revenue for the year fell to GBP1.41 billion from GBP1.55 billion a year earlier. On a constant-currency basis, revenue was 6.8% lower on year.
The board declared a full-year dividend of 21.6 pence a share, down from 30 pence a share in fiscal 2019.
The company said fiscal 2021 brings both continued uncertainty and an opportunity to capitalize on the trends that have accelerated as a result of Covid-19. It warned its first-half performance will be hit by restrictions on trading or the movement of people in all its markets.
