Latest news with #Funkin
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AG Barr enters sale talks with potential buyer for Strathmore water business
The Strathmore bottled water brand appears to have been saved from sinking as current owner AG Barr announced a potential buyer. UK beverage group AG Barr revealed plans in March to discontinue the brand as Strathmore had 'struggled to compete' in recent years and because the facility in Forfar, Scotland, from which the business operates, was 'no longer sustainable'. However, London-listed AG Barr, which also owns the Irn-Bru soft drinks line, has now entered talks with an unnamed buyer. 'The company is pleased to announce that it has now entered into exclusive discussions with a third party regarding a potential disposal of the Strathmore business,' AG Barr said in a brief stock exchange filing today (30 April). 'These discussions are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that a transaction will ultimately occur.' AG Barr, which also produces the Funkin cocktails range, added that it will make further announcements to the market 'as and when appropriate'. No mention was made today over the future for the workers at Forfar. As AG Barr unveiled the exit plan in March alongside its full-year results, the company said the site was at risk of closure, putting 23 jobs on the line. The scrapping of the Strathmore brand follows an 'organisational simplification' of the beverages group business which the company said was announced to staff in February. The move saw the integration of Barr Soft Drinks and the Funkin cocktails businesses into a 'unified AG Barr operation, streamlining activities and fostering synergies'. In March last year, AG Barr announced a round of redundancies affecting 160 roles as part of a shift from a direct-to-store delivery model to 'an enlarged and enhanced field sales operation'. Around the same time, AG Barr also revealed plans to 'fully integrate' its Boost Drinks subsidiary into the Barr Soft Drinks division to remove 'duplicated activities'. In its full-year fiscal period, AG Barr's revenue rose by 5.1% to £420.4m ($544.5m), driven by 'strong' performance in its soft drinks segment, particularly a 'standout performance' from Rubicon and 'continued strong growth' from Irn-Bru. The business also reported a 6.5% increase in gross profit to £164.3m, while operating profit was up 3.2% year on year at £51.7m. Profit before tax grew 3.7% to £53.2m. "AG Barr enters sale talks with potential buyer for Strathmore water business" was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AG Barr to pull Strathmore bottled water brand
UK beverages group AG Barr intends to scrap bottled water brand Strathmore. The brand is to be discontinued later in its 2025/26 financial year In a statement to Just Drinks, an AG Barr spokesperson said the brand had "struggled to compete" in recent years. They noted the move to cease producing Strathmore could result in the closure of its manufacturing site in Forfar in Scotland, putting 23 jobs at risk. 'We believe we have now reached a point where the Forfar site is no longer sustainable,' the spokesperson said. They added: 'The proposals are subject to consultation, and we intend to fully support our employees through this period of change.' The move was announced alongside the release of AG Barr's latest results for its 2024/25 fiscal year, which ended on 25 January. AG Barr, which produces the drinks brands Irn-Bru, Rubicon, Boost and Funkin, said 'current trading is in line with our expectations' and kept its annual outlook for the financial year 2025/26 'unchanged', forecasting continued revenue growth and margin improvement. The scrapping of the Strathmore brand follows an 'organisational simplification' of the business which the company said was announced to staff in February. The move sees the integration of Barr Soft Drinks and the Funkin cocktails businesses into a 'unified AG Barr operation, streamlining activities and fostering synergies'. In March last year, the business announced a round of redundancies affecting 160 roles as part of a shift from a direct-to-store delivery model to 'an enlarged and enhanced field sales operation'. Around the same time, AG Barr also revealed plans to 'fully integrate' its Boost Drinks subsidiary into the Barr Soft Drinks division to remove 'duplicated activities'. In its full-year fiscal period, AG Barr's revenue rose by 5.1% to £420.4m ($544.5m), driven by 'strong' performance in its soft drinks segment, particularly a 'standout performance' from Rubicon and 'continued strong growth' from Irn-Bru. The business also reported a 6.5% increase in gross profit, at £164.3m, while operating profit was up 3.2% year on year to £51.7m. Profit before tax grew 3.7% to £53.2m. Commenting on the company's results, AG Barr's newly appointed CEO Euan Sutherland, said: 'Looking forward, we have a refreshed strategy centred on growth and are committed to our long-term financial targets. I am confident that successful execution of our plans will see another year of positive progress towards our long-term goals." "AG Barr to pull Strathmore bottled water brand" was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Telegraph
14-02-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Passion fruit makes these three recipes sing
There are great highs in my job, though testing recipes at 3am is not one of them (I'm still scarred by last year's Christmas testing). The gift is that you can, from time to time, devote yourself to a single food. I feel a mixture of serenity and joy as I've been able to read about and cook with passion fruit for the past month. The passion fruit yo-yos below, filled with passion fruit buttercream, could have been made by angels – the biscuit component is what, in the UK, is known as a melting moment. If you decide to bake them, get a friend to hide them from you, or accept your fate. The simple yo-yo illustrates passion fruit's greatest strength. Most fruits, except for lemons and limes, aren't intense enough to take on cream, meringue, pastry, cake and sugar. In fact, passion fruit saves fruits you wish had more acidity. It makes a classic strawberry Eton mess sing and energises peaches in a compote, and it does this without losing its power. Passion fruit posset? Passion fruit loaf cake? Hell, yeah. And don't even get me started on mango and passion fruit jelly. You expect passion fruits to be sweeter than they are when you taste them for the first time. Before they're ripe they're as smooth as eggs, but with a slightly leathery purple skin. Watch for the wrinkles that appear as they ripen, but don't let this go too far as they become dry and the pulp shrinks. The fruit's interior is not what you expect either. Get the pulp and juice out with a teaspoon and look inside what feels like its 'shell'. In some there's a delicate rim of mauve, orange and blue – a tiny rainbow – as if the most beautiful bird had hatched from it. The pulp makes you shudder. You wait a little before you go for a second slurp. Once you add sugar it doesn't lose this sharpness, or the indescribable flavour of the tropics. There are different varieties but passion fruit – most commonly Passiflora edulis – comes from South America, specifically southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina. Now it's grown in other South American countries as well as Florida, Hawaii, California, Australia and New Zealand. It takes four kilos of fruit to produce one litre of juice, which means it's expensive. Often, I've thought about giving a recipe for passion fruit sorbet, only to conclude that I can't ask cooks to shell out so much, so I blend the juice with mango purée. It's easier now that you can buy Funkin passion fruit purée (Ocado has it). That's expensive too, at £11.20, but comes in a one-kilo pack so you can portion and freeze it – it'll be there the next time you want a passion fruit hit. Marks & Spencer stocks 90g plastic packets of fresh pulp and seeds. I sometimes end up in such a frenzy of anticipation that I give up the search for my kitchen scissors and stab the packet with a sharp knife. Its destination? Plain yoghurt sweetened with a little brown sugar. It's a solitary treat – passion fruit just for you. It's hard to believe that such a simple combination can be so good. The pulp can also provide a layer of sharpness in the bottom of a crème brûlée, be spooned over rice pudding or be transformed, along with rhubarb, into an ice cream perfectly poised between sharpness and sweetness. I don't usually make savoury dishes with it, save for salads of mango and avocado, grilled langoustines and raw fish. The sea bass recipe here is great with raw scallops as well. It is very good in a vinaigrette too, sweetened with a little honey. The cook must choreograph the dance between sweet and tart, finding the spot where they balance. Passion fruit is the food that makes your taste-buds go crazy and transports you to a place you've dreamt of but have never been.
