Key summary
AG Barr today (July 29) reported a trading update for the first half of the 2025-26 financial year, showing a 3 per cent increase in revenue to approximately £228 million, majorly driven by strong performance from its Boost brand.
The Scottish beverage company, best known for its flagship IRN-BRU brand, delivered growth across key metrics despite challenging market conditions where the overall soft drinks category saw volume declines.
AG Barr reported revenue of £221.3 million for H1 2024, representing a 5.2 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. This growth was driven by both volume increases and favorable price/mix effects, with case volumes rising 3.2 per cent to 36 million.
AG Barr’s core soft drinks business delivered a 7.0 per cent revenue increase, significantly outperforming the broader UK soft drinks market, which saw value growth of 2.0 per cent but volume declines of 0.4 per cent.
Irn-Bru and Rubicon were flat in the half, with a stronger performance in the second quarter.
Boost Energy, acquired by AG Barr in December 2022, delivered retail sales growth ahead of the overall soft drinks market, while the Funkin Cocktails ready-to-drink (RTD) cans performed strongly in retail despite weakness in the on-trade segment.
The company also announced a strategic acquisition of a 50.1 per cent stake in Innate-Essence Ltd, marking its expansion into the functional beverage segment.
Despite the sale of the Strathmore brand, the company maintains its full-year revenue and profit expectations, with a positive outlook for the second half of the year.
AG Barr said revenue and profit growth expectations for the full year are unchanged. "We are confident that H2 will see a strong rate of year-on-year revenue growth. We have made excellent progress with operating margin during H1 and expect to deliver a full year result in line with expectations after taking into account a planned higher level of marketing activity in H2,’ the firm added.In the financial year to January 25, 2024, AG Barr reported revenue of £420.4 million and pretax profit of £53.2 million.
In addition, AG Barr announced the £15.1 million acquisition of a 50.1% equity stake in Innate-Essence Ltd.
Innate-Essence is the home of The Turmeric Co, a brand in the ‘functional shots’ market, as well as a number of other speciality health drinks.
AG Barr said it has also concluded the sale of the Strathmore brand and the Forfar production site to Ty Nant, negatively impacting revenue in the short-term but not profit.
Chief Executive Officer Euan Sutherland said, "Trading improved during H1 and we enter H2 with strong momentum and continued progress on margin improvement as our strategic initiatives continue to deliver.
"I am also excited about our expansion into the functional beverage segment working alongside Thomas Robson-Kanu and the Innate-Essence team. Our full year guidance remains unchanged and in line with market expectations."