AG Barr – next Tuesday’s Interims will show good strategic progress, with growth in its core brands, full-year profit guidance maintained
Mark Watson-Mitchell - 24.09.2026
Building Great Brands
Next Tuesday, 29th September, will see AG Barr (LON:BAG), announce its Interim Results for the 26 weeks ended 1st August – the question is whether they will show significant enough advances in the group’s business.
Early last month the £660m-capitalised multi-beverage business, with a broad portfolio of market-leading UK brands including core brands IRN-BRU, Rubicon and Boost, noted that the benefits from integration and insourcing actions underpin a strengthening operating margin in H2 and delivery of profit expectations for the full year.
Overall, the group’s shares have not performed with the market this year, they are currently 588p, down 4.65% since January, however they did rise on a brief flurry to 711p in March, before falling away quite steeply.
Now investors question whether they will react positively to any corporate news next week, but it should be noted that City analysts appear to have a bullish verdict on the group’s shares.
The Business
Established over 150 years ago, the Cumbernauld-based group is a brand owner and builder, offering a diverse and differentiated portfolio of brands.
Its segments include Soft Drinks; Cocktail Solutions; and Other.
Its core brands include IRN-BRU, Rubicon, Boost Drinks, and FUNKIN. Its other portfolio includes Barr Flavours, KA, Bundaberg, D’N’B, OMJ!, Simply Fruity, Snapple, Sun Exotic, Tizer, Rio, The Turmeric Co., Frobishers and Fentimans.
The Other segment represents its MOMA business, comprising primarily oat drinks and porridge.
Its subsidiaries include: FUNKIN Limited, engaged in the distribution and selling of cocktail solutions; FUNKIN USA Limited, engaged in the distribution and selling of cocktail solutions; Rubicon Drinks Limited, engaged in the distribution of fruit-based soft drinks; and MOMA Foods Ltd, engaged in the distribution and selling of oat drinks and cereals, and Boost Drinks Limited, engaged in distribution and selling of soft drinks.
Latest Update
On Tuesday, 4th August, the group issued an Interim Trading Update for the 26 weeks ended 1st August, with revenue expected to be some £246m, an 8% increase year-on-year, driven by core brand growth and acquisitions, despite a £10m revenue impact from supply chain issues.
The company maintained its full-year profit guidance, anticipating double-digit percentage revenue growth in the second half due to market share gains, innovation, and supply chain improvements, with integrations of Fentimans and Frobishers completed and manufacturing investments on track.
Management Comment
Along with the Update CEO Euan Sutherland stated that:
"During the first half of the year we made significant progress against our strategic priorities.
We completed the integrations of both Frobishers and Fentimans, continued to successfully drive our core brand propositions and made further progress with our manufacturing investment programme.
Consumer demand for our brands is strong, with all core brands gaining market share.
The supply constraints which impacted Q2 performance are being resolved and, with strengthening trading momentum driven by our refreshed core brands and new product development, we remain confident for the full year."
The Equity
There are some 112.03m shares in issue.
The larger holders include Fidelity Management & Research Co. LLC (5.04%), Lindsell Train Ltd. (4.99%), Rathbones Investment Management Ltd. (3.57%), Heronbridge Investment Management LLP (2.81%), Vanguard Capital Management LLC (2.56%), Schroder & Co Bank AG (Private Banking) (2.44%), FIL Investment Advisors (UK) Ltd. (2.32%), Royal London Asset Management Ltd. (2.02%), BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd. (1.65%), and the WRG Barr Trust for Children (1.51%).
Brokers Views
Eight analysts follow the group, with five of them calling the shares as a Strong Buy, two as a Buy, while the other says Hold.
The analyst consensus average Target Price is 780p, the Lowest at 580p and the Highest at 830p.
Peel Hunt, Deutsche and Berenberg Bank each have a Buy rating, with a TP of 800p.
Analysts Darren Shirley and Clive Black, at Shore Capital Markets, have estimates out for the current year to end-January, looking for revenues to increase to £481m (£437m), while adjusted pre-tax profits could rise to £72.0m (£65.8m), with earnings of 48.0p (44.2p) per share, together with a dividend of 20.3p (18.7p).
For the coming 2028 year, they see £507m sales, £76.9m profits, 51.2p earnings and a 21.7p per share dividend.
In 2029 the analysts look for £528m turnover, £81.7m profits, 54.4p earnings and a 23.0p dividend per share.
My View
This group has potential growth written all over it, especially with an increasing portfolio of premium brands but will its Management draw out the profits required to justify analyst Target Prices – shares now 588p against their 780p average TP.
(Profile 31.07.20 @ 444.50p set a Target Price of 525p*)
(Profile 26.03.25 @ 610p set a Target Price of 715p*)
(Profile 21.05.26 @ 608p set a Target Price of 712p)
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