Britvic has no regrets about pulling added sugar Robinsons despite sales fall

The boss of drinks firm Britvic has said he was right to stop selling the sugar version of Robinsons squash, despite resulting in a fall in sales.

Simon Litherland added that although the sugar versions of Robinsons were pulled from supermarkets earlier this year, there were no plans to stop selling full sugar Pepsi — although all marketing is being pushed at sugar-free Pepsi Max.

He said: “We took a bold decision to de-list added sugar from Robinsons. There is increasing focus on sugar to meet the obesity challenge and you are seeing the market shift to low or no sugar drinks.

“It was absolutely the right thing to do. In most cases customers are happy to switch to the no added sugar version.”

The Wimbledon tennis sponsor, which also owns J2O and Tango, saw sales drop 0.6% to £1.3 billion in the year to September 27, although pre-tax profits rose 11% to £147 million thanks to cost-cutting and a shift in sales of higher margin drinks.