Britvic’s revenue tanks 16.3% in the fiscal third quarter

Britvic (LON: BVIC) said on Wednesday that its revenue in the fiscal third quarter came in lower than expected. The company attributed its dovish performance in Q3 to the Coronavirus pandemic that pushed restaurants, bars, and related outlets to temporarily shut down in recent months.

Shares of the company opened more than 1% down on Wednesday and dropped another 1% on market open. At 793 pence per share, Britvic is currently 12% down year to date in the stock market after recovering from an even lower 601 pence per share in March when the impact of COVID-19 was at its peak. At the time of writing, it has a market capitalisation of £2.12 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 25.01.

Britvic forecasts a monthly hit of £18 million

The British soft drinks company that owns prominent brands like Fruit Shoot, Tango, and Teisseire, reported a 16.3% decline in its revenue in the third quarter to £328.9 million. According to CEO Simon Litherland:

“In the near term, there remains a high degree of uncertainty about the pace and level of full recovery.”

Despite the gradual reopening of cinemas, pubs, and restaurants, Britvic said that it was uncertain about the pace of recovery in the upcoming months. The producer of soft drinks had previously estimated a monthly hit of £18 million to its adjusted operating profit this year; an estimate that it kept unchanged on Wednesday.  

Britvic announced Matt Swindall as its new chief procurement officer last month. Swindall has previously served at the UK unit of Coca-Cola that also revealed a 28% decline in its sales in the first quarter earlier this week.

Nichols reports a 78.2% decline in H1 pre-tax profit

In separate news, Nichols (LON: NICL) also said on Wednesday that its pre-tax profit tanked 78.2% in the first half of the ongoing financial year to £2.9 million. The Vimto-maker also acknowledged the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected a little under 300,000 people in the United Kingdom and caused over 45,000 deaths on its operations.

Nichols also refrained from giving its full-year financial guidance. Owing to the strength of its cash balance, however, it expressed plans of reinstating the 2019 final dividend as the 2020 interim dividend.

The £433.57 million company that has a price to earnings ratio of 16.15 is currently more than 20% down year to date in the stock market.