IN Brief:
- AG Barr estimates that reduced stock availability cut first-half revenue by approximately £10 million.
- Revenue is expected to reach around £246 million for the 26 weeks ended 1 August, an increase of approximately 8%.
- Boost Sports production has moved to Cumbernauld, while a Milton Keynes capacity upgrade remains on schedule.
AG Barr estimates that internal supply-chain constraints and disruption involving third-party manufacturers reduced first-half revenue by approximately £10 million. Product availability weakened during the second quarter while the drinks group was carrying out a wider programme of manufacturing investment, capacity changes, acquisition integration, and production insourcing.
Revenue is expected to reach approximately £246 million for the 26 weeks ended 1 August 2026, an increase of around 8% from £228.1 million a year earlier. AG Barr has retained its full-year profit expectations and anticipates double-digit percentage revenue growth for the year, supported by improved supply, market-share gains, innovation, and acquisition contributions.
The company attributed most of the availability problem to internal issues associated with its capability and capacity change programme. External disruption connected with third-party manufacturing also contributed. AG Barr said the constraints are being resolved and expects integration and insourcing benefits to support a stronger operating margin during the second half.
The disruption arrived while several operational projects were moving simultaneously. Boost Sports production was transferred into AG Barr’s Cumbernauld factory by the end of the first half, while a planned capacity upgrade at Milton Keynes remained on schedule and within budget. The integrations of Fentimans and Frobishers were also completed during the period.
Each project has a rational business case, but implementing several changes at once increases execution risk. An equipment upgrade can temporarily restrict available production time, while insourcing introduces additional products, materials, schedules, and maintenance requirements to an established plant. Acquisitions bring further suppliers, systems, stock policies, and commercial expectations that must be absorbed without weakening the existing operation.
The £10 million estimate shows how quickly those pressures can reach the income statement when consumer demand remains present but the product is unavailable. A beverage manufacturer can grow its brands and still lose sales if the required stock is not in the correct format, warehouse, or customer channel during a promotion, warm-weather period, or sporting event.
AG Barr’s core brands continued to perform strongly in the market. IRN-BRU ended the half growing ahead of the market in England and Scotland, with the strongest progress in England following the rebranding of IRN-BRU Zero. Rubicon improved as the period progressed, while Boost recorded double-digit growth as it expanded in grocery and entered healthy hydration through Boost Water+.
Independent market data cited by the company showed AG Barr value growth of 8.3% during the 12 weeks ended 18 July, compared with 7.4% for the wider soft-drinks market. That distinction reinforces the operational nature of the problem: demand and brand performance were not the only constraints, while the supply network’s ability to convert demand into completed orders was.
Insourcing can reduce dependence on external production and give a manufacturer more control over scheduling, quality, cost, and product availability. It also moves additional responsibility into the internal network. A plant taking on another product family needs sufficient filling and packing time, trained operators, maintenance cover, packaging supply, warehouse capacity, and planning capability.
The transition must therefore be staged carefully. Production may need to run in parallel with an external supplier until internal output has demonstrated stable speed, quality, changeover performance, and reliability. Removing contingency before the new process is fully established can create a capacity shortfall even when the installed machinery is technically capable of meeting demand.
Third-party manufacturing remains useful where specialist equipment, flexibility, or geographic reach make external supply more efficient. The first-half disruption nevertheless illustrates the need to understand dependencies beyond the contract itself. Availability can be affected by the co-packer’s assets, packaging supply, transport, labour, maintenance, or allocation decisions when several customers compete for limited capacity.
The Fentimans and Frobishers integrations introduce another planning layer. AG Barr expects operating efficiencies to emerge during the second half, but those benefits will depend on common purchasing, clearly assigned manufacturing responsibilities, aligned systems, and inventory policies that reflect the characteristics of each product range.
The Milton Keynes upgrade and Cumbernauld insourcing project should provide greater control once they are fully operational. The useful measure will not be installed capacity alone, but dependable output at the required quality, cost, and service level. New equipment must prove its availability before planners can safely remove stock buffers or alternative supply routes elsewhere.
AG Barr expects to report its full interim results on 29 September. Those figures should provide more detail on margins, working capital, and the progress made in restoring availability. The current update indicates that corrective work is under way, but the £10 million revenue impact has already established the cost of allowing a transformation programme to overtake day-to-day supply execution.
