AGM Trading Statement

Fevertree Drinks PLC

25 May 2023

 

Fever-Tree Drinks plc

TRADING UPDATE

Fever-Tree, the world's leading supplier of premium carbonated mixers, announces a trading update ahead of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM"), which is being held today at 11.30am BST.

Fever-Tree has made a good start to the year, trading in-line with the expectations set out at our FY22 Results.

UK

·    Fever-Tree recorded its highest ever value share in the On-Trade during a first quarter trading period; c.6% higher than our share in Q1 2020[1]. We expect our Off-Trade sales to build in momentum as the year progresses and overall, we are trading in line with expectations in the UK.

·    We look forward to the key summer trading period, with multiple activations planned across our portfolio and are seeing an encouraging performance from our new Adult Soft range.

·    We continue to innovate and broaden our portfolio of drinks, launching our range of cocktail mixers across both channels at the beginning of Q2, with strong interest from our customers and activations planned over the summer.

US

·    The US has had a strong start to the year in both the On- and Off-Trade, with good value and volume growth across all categories, with particularly strong growth in Flavoured Sparkling and Club Soda[2].

·    Our flavour and format innovations are gaining traction quickly, with cocktail mixers, Blood Orange Ginger Beer, and our can packs starting to contribute meaningfully to total growth.

Europe

·    In Europe, Fever-Tree continues to gain value share of the premium mixer category at retail, with particularly encouraging growth in Italy and France[3].

·    This year we are excited to launch our Sparkling Pink Grapefruit into the On-Trade across Europe, expanding our portfolio to lighter summer drinks, after being encouraged by its success in the US.

ROW

·    We continue to make good sales and operational progress across our RoW regions.

·    The transition to our new distribution partner in Australia is progressing well and due to be finalised during the summer. Whilst our first half results will reflect an inventory buy-back as part of the transition, we are confident of a strong second half performance in this market.

FY23 outlook

We are confident that the brand will continue to deliver strong revenue growth as we start our key summer trading period and therefore reiterate our top-line guidance range as set out in March at £390m to £405m.

Whilst inflationary cost pressures remain elevated, the Group continues to be focused on delivering initiatives to mitigate these costs and expects to drive margin improvements as we progress through the year, which means we're on-track to deliver EBITDA in-line with our guidance range of £36m to £42m for 2023.

For more information please contact:

Investor queries

Ann Hyams, Director of Investor Relations I [e-mail] I [phone]

Media queries

Oliver Winters, Director of Communications I [e-mail] I [phone]

Nominated Advisor and Broker - Investec Bank plc

David Flin I Alex Wright I [phone]

Corporate Broker - Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc

Andrew Foster I Jessica Pauley I [phone]

Financial PR advisers - FGS Global

Faeth Birch [phone] I Anjali Unnikrishnan [phone]

Notes to the Editors:

Fever-Tree is the world's leading supplier of premium carbonated mixers by retail sales value, with distribution to over 85 countries worldwide. Based in the UK, the brand was launched in 2005 to provide high quality mixers which could cater to the growing demand for premium spirits, in particular gin, but also increasingly for vodka, rum and whisky. The Company now sells a range of carbonated mixers to hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes ("On Trade") as well as selected retail outlets ("Off Trade").

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[1] CGA Q1 2023

[2] Nielsen Q1 2023

[3] Nielsen Q1 2023

 

END