St.Helens The Heart of the North West

The soft drinks firm behind the Vimto brand today unveiled a major acquisition and said profits would be well ahead of City hopes.
St Helens-based Nichols, which also makes Panda and Sunkist drinks, saw an “exceptionally strong” 2009 with revenues “considerably up” on the previous year.
Shares rose 5% as the company said it had bought the dispense business of Huddersfield-based soft drink firm Ben Shaws for an undisclosed fee.
The addition of the business, which supplies pub and restaurants with draught soft drinks, consolidates Nichols’ position as the third-biggest player in the market.
Nichols said the group had continued the “positive momentum” from a 28% rise in sales during the first half of the year.
Chairman John Nichols said: “Despite the economic downturn, we had an exceptionally strong year, beating both our internal and the City’s forecasts and also increasing our market share significantly ahead of industry trends.
“With the acquisition of Ben Shaws consolidating our key position in the dispense market we view the future with confidence.”
Nichols traces its history back more than a century, The current chairman is the great-grandson of Vimto founder John Noel Nichols, who created the recipe in Manchester in 1908.

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