LONDON (Reuters) - British soft drinks group AG Barr (L:BAG) said it did not expect to see profit growth this year after poor weather since July dented demand for its products, which include Irn-Bru, Rubicon and Strathmore.
Shares in the firm fell 6 percent on Tuesday after it said it now expected to deliver a result for the 2015-16 year broadly similar to that achieved in 2014-15, though that assumes a satisfactory trading performance in the key Christmas period.
AG Barr made a pretax profit before one off items of 41.9 million pounds in its 2014-15 year. Analysts had expected 2015-16 profits of 44.3 million pounds, according to Reuters data.
Analysts at Investec Securities trimmed their 2015-16 profit forecast to 41 million pounds from 44.9 million pounds and their forecast for 2016-17 to 43.6 million pounds from 47.3 million pounds.
"Market conditions across the first half have been difficult and are forecast to remain so," said AG Barr Chief Executive Roger White.
"The business is responding well to the market challenges but the weather since we last updated the market in July has been poor and, although we have recovered some sales momentum, it is not yet at the run rate we have targeted."
White said he expected the business to return to growth in 2016 as it benefits from prior investment.
Shares in AG Barr, down 11 percent over the last year, were down 30 pence at 534 pence at 0708 GMT.
The firm made a pretax profit before one off items of 17.8 million pounds in the six months to July 25, up 3.3 percent, on turnover of 130.3 million pounds, down 2.8 percent. It is paying an interim dividend of 3.36 pence, up 8 percent.
Separately on Tuesday British pubs group Mitchells & Butlers (L:MAB) said it had replaced its CEO Alistair Darby with insider Phil Urban as it warned weak recent trade would push full-year profit to the bottom end of market forecasts.