King Charles’s Coronation will be ‘a good excuse to go and party and raise a gin and tonic or two’, said the boss of Fevertree.
Tim Warrillow said he was ‘very optimistic’ the long weekend in May will boost business at the tonic maker despite announcing a 44 per cent slide in annual profits.
The drinks firm is also setting out plans for more price rises.
Confident: Fevertree boss Tim Warrillow said he was ‘very optimistic’ the long weekend in May will boost business at the tonic maker despite announcing a 44% slide in annual profits
Warrillow said: ‘We’ll have a lot of activities going on, with retail promotions and marketing.
‘The country deserves a bit of an opportunity to go out and enjoy themselves.’
But he conceded the so-called ‘ginaissance’ of pre-pandemic years has run out of steam. Warrillow said ‘there’s no question gin has come down from 2019’ as consumers instead turn to vodka and tequila.
The comments came as Fevertree announced a 44 per cent slide in profits to £31million in 2022 as the cost of bottling tonic soars.
The drop came despite an 11 per cent rise in revenues to £344.3million.
But shares fizzed higher, up 9.5 per cent, or 102p, to 1180p, as Fevertree outlined plans for further price hikes of around 5 per cent to cushion the blow.
Warrillow insisted it was only pushing on ‘some’ of the inflationary pressures to customers.
He added: ‘We are growing this business for the long term, we don’t want to drive a large, loyal customer base away.’
And he said there was a ‘broad base of consumers who think it is worth paying the extra pence for extra quality’.