A.G Barr plc (LON:BAG), the maker of the Irn-Bru brand, revealed on Tuesday that 99% of its soft drinks are sugared down in order to exempt the products from Britain’s soft drinks industry levy.
The UK’s sugar tax on soft drinks was introduced last April in order to positively impact the health of individuals in Britain. Excess sugar consumption is linked to obesity and weight gain which increases the likelihood of the development of a wide range of health issues.
This measure now charges drinks with over 5 grams of sugar per 100 millimetres.
A.G Barr said on Tuesday that 99% of its drinks have been reformulated in a way that avoids them being taxed by the government measure.
Additionally, the company added that Irn-Bru’s sugar free variants now account for 40% of the total Irn-Bru brand.
It reported a 2.5% rise in pre-tax profits, rising to £45.2 million as opposed to the £44.1 million figure from 2018.
A.G Barr said that it had incurred £1.4 million of costs as part of its ongoing sugar reduction and reformulation plan.
The maker of Irn-Bru is not the only company to move its portfolio towards healthier products. As more consumers embark on a healthier lifestyle, food and beverage producers have had to shift their products to meet this growing demand.
Greggs (LON:GRG) revealed earlier this month the success of its Vegan sausage roll, created to cater for a vegan diet. Hundreds of thousands of vegan sausage rolls were sold in the first week of the product’s launch.
Elsewhere, Pepsi (NASDAQ:PEP) announced last year that it would buy the drink-machine maker SodaStream for $3.2 billion in a bid to compete against its rival Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) for healthy beverages.
In confectionary, Nestle (SWX:NESN) announced last year that it was set to make additional cuts to sugar, salt and saturated fat quantities in its products in an attempt to draw in more health-conscious consumers.
At 08:27 GMT Tuesday, shares in A.G Barr plc (LON:BAG) were trading at -1.62%.
