Troubled Irish drinks firm C&C Group recently warned that its margins deteriorated significantly over the Christmas period as continued competitive pressure saw further declines in sales. Revenue since 30 November showed similar declines to the previous quarter when states dropped 13%. However, margins were considerably weaker as a result of "continuing competitive pressure" it said, having dropped 3% to end-Nov. "Performance over the seasonally weak months of Jan/Feb are expected to follow this trend" it added. Accordingly, the Group currently expects overall operating profit for the full year to end-Feb/09 to be around Euros 90M. In the third quarter to Nov 30, the company said that its cider revenue declined 19%, with sales in Britain down 24% and a 17% decline in the ROI.
