Fever-Tree up double digits in 2022, warns of “material” impact from glass pricing – results data

Fever-Tree has retained its double-digit growth rate for the year, although a dip in domestic sales and ongoing issues with the high price of glass has clouded the company’s recent and future performance.

The 11% increase in sales for the 12-month period was driven firstly by H1's +14% showing as well as the US, which came in up 13% on the corresponding period a year earlier. The UK-based mixer producer's domestic market - its largest - slowed considerably in the second half following H1's 6% increase in sales, as the full year finished down 2%.

Fever-Tree flagged "tough comparators" in the UK off-premise, coinciding with train strikes in the run-up to Christmas that hit on-premise performance.

Issues with logistics in the US, which were most keenly felt in the first six months, hampered what the group claimed would have been "an even stronger sales performance [in the country] during the year", although confidence remains high that 2023 will be strong.

In Europe, sales rose 16% year-on-year thanks predominantly to the ending of on-premise restrictions combined with a healthy tourist season in the south.

While stating an expected 13%-to-18% rise in 2023 sales, the company warned of the ongoing impact of the high price of glass as a result of the costs of both raw materials and energy. "As a glass-led business, with circa 80% of our sales mix in glass bottles," Fever-Tree said, "we are particularly exposed to this significant headwind. We now estimate that the direct energy component of glass manufacture alone represents a circa GBP20m additional cost to the business in 2023 compared to our prevailing glass pricing in Q1 2022."

Fever-Tree will report the full details of its 2022 performance on 22 March.

Fever-Tree's pre-close trading update.

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