After a strong post-lockdown rebound, soft drink and mixer maker Britvic (BVIC) seems to have well and truly lost its fizz over the last year with the shares slumping to 12-month lows last week.

Quite why the market has soured on the £2 billion market-cap firm isn’t obvious, given it has an enviable portfolio of brands including Fruit Shoot, J2O, Robinsons and Tango as well as making Pepsi and 7UP for US drinks giant PepsiCo (PEP:NASDAQ).

The company posted a positive trading update for the first quarter to December, with group sales up 8% led by growth of more than 20% in Brazil, and said it had ‘exciting plans’ for 2024 across its markets including the first brand refresh for Pepsi in 14 years.

Meanwhile, the UK hospitality industry appears to be in rude health with sales up close to 12% in March, although the month did include five weekends and Easter was earlier than last year, but even with this in mind the year seems to be off to a promising start.

Investors will therefore be keen to see what the company can do to revive its flagging share price when it reports its first-half results on 15 May.

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