Shares in Britvic tumbled on the FTSE 250 after the soft drinks group swung sharply into losses in the full year ended 26 September.

Group revenue was reported as rising 14.6 per cent to £1.1 billion, while pre-tax profit increased 21.5 per cent to £104.6 million.

However after tax and exceptional items Britvic went from a profit of £46.3 million last year to a loss of £51.4 million. The company said it had taken a hit worth £104.2 million from Britvic Ireland's intangible and property assets.

The period also saw the company acquire Britvic France for 237 million euros.

Despite the loss Britvic said it would be raising its full year dividend 11.3 per cent to 16.7 pence per share.

Paul Moody, Chief Executive of Britvic, said, "Britvic has again demonstrated its ability to grow the business despite the difficult conditions in the wider economy. This performance was achieved through the breadth and quality of our brand portfolio, strong delivery of innovation and a targeted and focused programme to grow our business internationally.

"We are delighted that Britvic France is performing well and its integration into the Group is on plan. We are taking further steps to restructure our business in Ireland and believe that this, along with our strong brands and leading market positions will create a platform to enable us to rebuild the profitability of this business.

"Whilst we expect the consumer and cost environment to remain challenging, we are confident in our ability to compete strongly in the markets in which we operate. The Group's extensive brand and innovation plans, combined with satisfactory trading in the first few weeks of the new financial year, mean we are in good shape to deliver another robust set of results for the year ahead."

By 10:55 shares in Britvic were down 7.56 per cent on the FTSE 250 to 453.50 pence per share.

FTSE