S&N chairman to outline future plans
Scottish & Newcastle produced a 'robust' set of results for 2006, chairman Sir Brian Stewart will tell today's Annual General Meeting.
Sir Brian will tell the company's great and good that S&N is not immune to rising costs and the smoking ban will be a challenge but it had still managed to grow its share of the market.
He will say: "Brands and innovation continue to be strong drivers for growth, with successes in individual markets now being applied to other countries.
"We have continued to develop the Foster's brand after acquiring the trademark last year, with a newly packaged relaunch for our international markets including Russia.
"In cider, we are introducing our Strongbow and Bulmers brands into a number of European markets.
"This year is the first full year, post-merger, where Baltika is operating as a unified business across the Russian Federation - an integrated brand portfolio with an unrivalled operational footprint and the clear market leader producing Russia's leading consumer brand.
"As announced at our annual results in February, we are committed to delivering £50m in cost savings over three years across our wholly-owned European businesses.
"However, like all businesses, S&N is not immune to cost pressures associated with input price inflation."
In relation to the company's operations in the UK Sir Brian will say: "The beer market has had a slow start in the first quarter with an upturn during March due to favourable weather.
"Our three main beer brands - Foster's, Kronenbourg 1664 and John Smith's - continue to outperform the market, taking share.
"However, the smoking ban in England, which starts in July, remains a challenge.
"In cider, our leading brand Strongbow has enjoyed a positive start to the year continuing its momentum achieved over the last three years since acquisition.
"Our premium cider portfolio, with Bulmers Original, Strongbow Sirrus and Jacques, is taking share of the 'over-ice' segment. Bulmers Original is in around one third of on-trade outlets and commands listings in all of the multiple off-trade retailers.
"KNDL, our distribution joint venture with Kuehne+Nagel, is developing a strong pipeline of new business, clearly demonstrating the success of our partnership strategy."
