Cott officials said today in a press release that sales of their retailer-brand soft drinks, such as Cott, RC, Ben Shaws, Stars & Stripes, Vintage, and Vess, are "declining at a higher rate than previously expected, mainly due to heavier than anticipated national brand promotional activity."
As a result, the world's largest retailer of brand soft drinks said its year-end profit target will range from five per cent below to 28 per cent above its 2007 operating profit of $36.3 million.
The company forecast earlier that its operating profit would rise by 50-70 per cent from last year's profit.
"Faced with recent disappointing results including steeper-than-expected volume declines and higher-than-expected increases in PET resin costs, we initiated a comprehensive financial review of our business," said Juan Figuereo, Cott's chief financial officer. "It has now become clear that our previously-announced target is out of reach."
Cott's interim CEO, David Gibbons, said, "the disappointing results we have seen over the past few weeks, at the beginning of our most critical quarter, indicate we will fall substantially short of our expectations for 2008. We are no longer on track to deliver our targets. Our focus for the remainder of 2008 is to implement our plans to refocus Cott on its private label business. We believe this remains the best path to improved profitability."
Cott has its corporate headquarters on Viscount Rd. in Malton. It also has offices in the United States, England, Europe and Mexico.
jstewart@mississauga.net
