THE owner of Tennent’s Lager has signalled its operating profit will be as much as 10 per cent lower than last year as a result of the weakness in sterling.
Dublin-based and London-listed C&C Group said the volume of its three principal brands – Bulmers in Ireland, Magners and Tennent’s – was significantly improved on 2016, but adverse currency exchange rates would lead to operating profit in the region of €94 million to €96m.
Tennent’s is expected to report flat volume for the year to February 28, but a growing share in independent free trade channel. Export volume is expected to show double-digit growth when C&C reports on May 17, after a number of deals for Tennent’s were signed during the year.
C&C said cost reduction plans announced in October 2015 were completed as planned in the second half. The benefits of this were outweighed by incremental brand investment and price deflation, which it attributed to changes in channel and pack mix across the group.
The Magners brand in the UK is expected to see volume growth of 11 per cent for the full year in a declining market. But, C&C said negative pressures on pricing presented an ongoing challenge, while it also highlighted large grocery retailers taking share from convenience stores, and the shift from glass to aluminium as being negative dynamics for brands such as Magners.
In December brewing giant ABInBev took over distribution of Magners south of the Border, while C&C extended a deal to produce Stella Artois at Glasgow’s Wellpark Brewery, the home of Tennent’s Lager.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here