Tennent Caledonian owner C&C Group, despite reporting a fall in first-half profits of 2.6%, has revealed that in Scotland first half net revenues rose 69% to £93m while operating profits rose 14% to 17.7m. “The company said that this reflected “the inclusion of six months trade from the acquired Wallaces Express wholesale business”. C&C completed the buy-out of Wallaces in March, having taken a 50% share of the businesses the previous year, and rebranded its Scottish operation as Wallaces TCB.
Stephen Glancey, C&C Group CEO, commented, “Scotland reported a resilient performance despite the significant task of integrating Wallaces and Tennent Caledonian. The acquisition is on track to deliver expected returns and integration will be completed early next year. This will ultimately provide a strong foundation for growing our combined business.”
The report also stated that “The Tennent’s brand in Scotland had another solid performance with net revenue broadly on par with the prior comparative period. Operating margins declined marginally as a result of increased investment behind the Tennent’s brand. The business continued to gain good market share in the Independent Free Trade (IFT) channel with year on year growth of 5.2%.”
While the progress of Caledonia Best and Heverlee, and the recently launched Menabrea was also mentioned positively. C&C’s joint venture with the Williams Bros, Drygate, is also performing well. The company, at the the end of the accounting period had loans of €2.4m (£1.87m) outstanding from the Thistle Pub Company, a joint venture with the Maclay Group.
For the full financial report visit www.candcgroupplc.ie