Soft drinks manufacturer A.G. Barr has unveiled a pre-close trading statement forecasting encouraging results for the full year 2012, underpinned by growth across the group's core brands.

The company, which is expected to merge with Britvic in February pending approval from the Office of Fair Trading, announced that trading in the final quarter of the year was expected to show performance ahead of the total soft drinks market.

Total sales in the final quarter of the year are expected to be 5.0% ahead of the previous year's levels and full year revenue is expected to rise by approximately 7.0% to £253m.

All of the company's core brands had grown over the 12 months in spite of very poor summer weather and a competitve market place.

The group reported that its IRN-BRU brand had performed "well" with a positive consumer response to the marketing campaign entitled 'IRN-BRU gets you through'. It reported that its "Rubicon" and "KA" brands had built on strong prior year performances and stated that the Barr brand had maintained double digit growth performance.

Meanwhile, its energy drink Rockstar was described as having seen a "a step change in its performance".

In the group's outlook, it reported: "We remain cautiously optimistic that the combination of our proven operating model, continued focus on efficiency, strong brand equity, sound balance sheet and growth potential leave us well placed to continue to build on this performance."

MF

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