AG Barr – will it be a fizzy AGM tomorrow, enough to get its shares, now at 608p, back into price recovery?
- Mark Watson-Mitchell
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Mark Watson-Mitchell - 21.05.2026
Tomorrow morning, Friday 22nd May, we should be seeing AG Barr (LON:BAG), the multi-beverage business, issuing a Trading Update ahead of its AGM later in the day.
There are hopes in the market that its contents will be enough to turn around the recent decline in the Cumbernauld-based maker of market-leading drinks brands like IRN-BRU, Rubicon and Boost.
Tomorrow’s event covers the approval of the Report & Accounts for the group’s year to end-January 2026.
The Business
The £683m-capitalised company 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.
Final Results
On Tuesday 31st March, the group reported strong financial delivery and strategic progress for the financial year to end-January.
It saw revenue increasing by 4.0% to £437.3m and adjusted profit before tax rising 12.5% to £65.8m, driven by a 120-basis point increase in adjusted operating margin to 14.8%.
The company maintained an adjusted return on capital employed of 20.4% despite significant investment in brand and capital expenditure, and statutory profit before tax saw a notable 17.7% increase.
Cash generated from operations grew by 12.7% to £64.9m, supporting a 11.0% increase in the full-year dividend to 18.71p per share, with net cash at bank standing at £41.6 million following acquisitions.
The company stated that it had entered the new financial year with good momentum, expecting low double-digit revenue growth supported by recent acquisitions.
Management Comment
CEO Euan Sutherland stated that:
"This was a year of significant strategic progress in which we also delivered on our targeted financial metrics.
We have strengthened the foundations of the business and stepped up our investment in brand development, commercial capability and our operations to ensure we can consistently sustain high levels of performance.
These actions, supplemented by a more meaningful M&A strategy, support our ambition to deliver our target of sustainable, consistent top and bottom-line growth.
We entered FY26/27 with good momentum and clear priorities, and expect to deliver a year of low double digit percentage revenue growth supported by our recent acquisitions.
Our strategy aims to deliver above-market growth rates and realise our ambition of doubling the size of the business.
Importantly, we are pursuing this ambition without changing our core business model, and with a continued disciplined focus on margin, ROCE and shareholder returns."
Interim Chair Susan Barratt stated that:
“AG Barr enters the new financial year with momentum.
Considerable work has been completed over the past year to lay strong foundations for future growth.
The Board expects the coming year to demonstrate further strategic progress, with clear milestones across innovation, channel expansion, and execution of our growth strategy through integration of recent acquisitions.
We are investing for the future through our manufacturing sites to improve both volume capacity and format capability.
We are also focused on investing in talent at all levels of the organisation.
The Board is confident in the Group's ability to deliver growth ahead of the market whilst maintaining financial discipline and continuing to generate sustainable returns for shareholders.”
Investment Case
The company states that it is a UK focused, multi beverage, brand builder with a long history of profitable growth and cash delivery.
It has an ambition to double in size - and grow from there.
Ambitious with value driven strategy
Strong core brands with challenger mentality
Clear growth opportunities
Disciplined capital allocation
Responsible and sustainable
Financial strength
The Equity
There are some 112.03m shares in issue.
The larger holders include Fidelity Management & Research (5.04%), Lindsell Train (4.99%), Rathbones Investment Management (3.73%), Heronbridge Investment Management (3.36%), Vanguard Capital Management (2.65%), Schroder Private Banking (2.57%), The Vanguard Group (2.49%), FIL Investment Advisors (2.14%), Royal London Asset Management (1.99%) and Schroder Investment Management (1.63%).
Broker’s Views
In late April, analyst Damian McNeela, at Deutsche Bank, upped his Buy note Target Price from 760p to 800p for the group’s shares.
He stated that its recent full-year 2026 results demonstrated a decent performance, with delivery across all five growth pillars.
McNeela said that Barr has long been recognised as a well-run business, generating solid growth with a conservative approach to capital allocation and since the appointment of Euan Sutherland as chief executive in 2024 there has been a fresh injection of energy into the business.
“It has recruited to enhance sales capabilities and invested in its supply chain, which have driven ‘a faster pace of innovation and improved in-market execution’ and delivering revenue growth of 4% in full-year 2026.
This should underpin the ambition to achieve annual revenue growth of mid-single-digits over the medium-term.”
Analysts Darren Shirley and Clive Black, at Shore Capital Markets, state that they see lots to like in AG Barr’s equity investment case.
They are estimating that the current year to end-January 2027, revenues will rise to £490.0m (£437.0m), with adjusted pre-tax profits of £72.0m (£65.8m), earnings of 48.0p (44.2p) and a dividend of 20.3p (18.7p) per share.
For the 2028 year, they look for £510.0m sales, £76.9m profits, 51.2p earnings and paying out a 21.7p dividend per share.
My View
This group’s shares were up to 712p this time last year, and after various price dips, those levels have been reached again another three times subsequently.
On the basis of the broker estimates I would suggest that the gap from the current 608p to 712p could well be filled within the next year or so.
Hopefully tomorrow’s AGM Update will help the shares to improve again.
(Profile 31.07.20 @ 444.50p set a Target Price of 525p*)
(Profile 26.03.25 @ 610p set a Target Price of 715p*)
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