Nichols, the parent company of Vimto, has warned it is “not immune” to the significant and accelerating inflationary pressures impacting the soft drinks industry, as it reports a 14% increase in revenues to £164.9 million in its trading update for the 12 months ended 31 December 2022.
The second half of the year was up by 10% year-on-year, the company, which owns Slush Puppie and Sunkist, revealed.
The Vimto brand continued to perform well, with its brand value increasing by 3.4% in the UK, which is broadly in line with the performance of the group’s UK packaged route to market.
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In the International packaged route to market, the Vimto brand continued to see strong progress year-on-year, with revenue growth 15% compared with the same period last year.
The company, added that its second half performance was 48% up year-on-year, with positive performance in all regions.
According to the brand, its Out of Home (OoH) route to market continues to recover from the impact of the pandemic and has seen revenue growth of 43% year-on-year.
Despite ongoing inflationary pressures, the group added that it expects its adjusted profit before tax to be in line with expectations.
“Whilst FY23 will be a challenging year as cost of living pressures impact consumer demand across all routes to market, the group will continue to seek to mitigate these pressures through both cost efficiency and revenue management,” Nichols said in a statement.
“Throughout FY22, this has helped the Vimto brand continue to grow in the UK and Internationally, which the board is confident will continue in FY23.”
The news comes as the company announced Elizabeth McMeikan as its next non-executive chair.
She said: “Nichols plc is an outstanding business with a proud history and exciting future prospects. I am both delighted and honoured to be given this opportunity to take over as the company’s next chair.
“I look forward to joining the company and working closely with my new colleagues to contribute to the group’s continued, sustainable success.”
McMeikan has previously held senior positions at Big 4 grocer Tesco, Colgate and PalmOlive. The group also confirmed that John Nichols will remain on the board as a non-executive director.
