The threat of job losses hangs over Magners cider maker C&C Group as the Irish company prepares to undertake a "comprehensive restructuring" of the business.
The move comes after what chief executive Maurice Pratt described as an "exceptionally poor summer" for the group.
Bad weather, tough competition and high marketing costs were named as factors behind a 33 per cent slump in C&C's operating profits for the six months to August 31.
Pratt said C&C had conducted "an extensive review" of its situation and had taken "certain corrective steps and measures to sharpen its competitive capability".
The business would be comprehensively restructured, while a cost reduction programme would be introduced in an effort to restore growth in revenue and operating margin in the coming financial year.
A spokeswoman for the group declined to discuss the details of the proposed restructuring, particularly with regard to job losses, but said that "all aspects of the business will be examined".
"We will be talking to people internally and will update the market next month," she said.
Reporting its half year numbers today, the Dublin-based group said turnover was flat at €375.6m (£263m), operating profits were down a third at €67.9m (£47.5m) and pre-tax profits had fallen by 36.2 per cent to €59.3m (£41.5m).
Magners volumes rose two per cent year-on-year while distribution in the UK on-trade distribution dipped to 66 per cent in July 2007, versus 67 per cent in February 2007.
C&C said Magners' market share of the premium cider market fell from 90 per cent in the six months to February 28 2007 to 80 per cent in the five months to July 31.
The group blamed "heavy price-led competition, but said the brand had "showed its resilience in maintaining its overall distribution broadly in line with the February level".
Scottish & Newcastle has been aggressively targeting the market for bottled cider over ice carved by Magners with its Bulmers Original brand. Nielsen figures to July suggest Bulmers Original now has a quarter of the on-trade packaged cider market, although Magners still has around a three-quarter market share.
C&C is meanwhile looking to broaden the opportunities for Magners into a number of European markets.
The group said it had commenced a "structured test" to assess the prospects for the brand in Spain and Germany, although despite concluding there is "consumer opportunity" in both markets noted there would be "significant challenges to its realisation".