Britannia Soft Drinks
In 1986, Allied merged its British Vitamin Products Company division into Britannia Soft Drinks, a company created in 1980 by Bass and Whitbread to manage their soft drink businesses.[27] The merger saw Britvic come together with Canada Dry Rawlings and the R. White's Lemonade brand. Britannia acquired the Corona Soft Drinks Company from Beechams in 1987 for £120 million, which included the brands, Tango, Quosh, Idris, Hunts and Top Deck, with Britvic becoming Britvic Corona.[34][35] PepsiCo, which had lost its UK partner, Cadbury-Schweppes to Coca-Cola, purchased 10% of Britvic from Britannia in exchange for the licence to bottle Pepsi and 7 Up in the UK.[36][37] By 1987, the company had 20% of the market share, only second to Coca-Cola Schweppes.[38] In 1990, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission investigated if the large soft drink bottlers, Coca-Cola Schweppes and Britvic had pushed out smaller competitors, by restricting what retailers could sell by exclusive supply agreements, which the commission found as an illegal practice in 1991.[39][40]
In response to a slowing in sales of Tango, a new advertising campaign was launched in 1992, called You know when you have been Tango'd, with sales increasing by 30% the month after it was launched, it saw the drink reach number 3 in the soft drinks chart behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi.[41] The company announced a fall of profits by 20% in 1993 to £6 million.[42] During 1994, there was persistent rumours that Bass was going to sell its shares to PepsiCo but nothing came from it.[43] Britvic launched still Tango in June 1994, but after poor sales the product was withdrawn from the market just 5 week later,[44] however, in the same year through a partnership with Unilever and PepsiCo, they created Liptonice in response to the launch of Snapple.[45] In 1995, Britannia bought Robinson's from Unilever for £103 million, who sold the brand as part of its purchase of the Reckitt & Colman
The company launched J2O in 2000. During 2000 it was reported that the majority shareholders, Bass, Allied-Domecq and Whitbread in Britannia had instructed Schroder Salomon Smith Barney to manage an auction for the business. PepsiCo and A.G. Barr both were rumoured to purchase the business,[54] however, the auction was cancelled in 2001, after Britannia and PepsiCo could not agree on any of the offers made.[55] The company grew by purchasing Orchid Drinks, manufacturer of Purdey's and Aqua Libra for £20 million in 2000.[56] Red Devil Energy Drink UK and Irish licence was purchased from entrepreneur Clive Garrad in 2002, with Britvic closing its own energy drink brand, Carbon, which had been created in 2000, transferring the production from Holland to Chelmsford.[57][58] It was reported that in 2003, the company had made operating profits of £83m on a turnover of £674 million.
In 2004, Pepsi agreed to swap its 10% share in Britvic for a 5% in Britannia Soft Drinks, which was agreed so Britvic could be floated on the stock market, and agreed a new 15 year contract with Britvic, which now included Gatorade.[59][60] Britannia Soft Drinks and Britvic were merged in October 2004 prior to the flotation.[61] The newly merged company was split between InterContinental Hotels (formerly Bass) 47.5%; Whitbread 23.75%; Pernod Ricard (who had purchased Allied) 23.75%; PepsiCo 5%.[60] The company announced profits of £78.7 million on £700 million of sales in October 2005, while announcing in November a flotation of the company managed by Citibank and Deutsche Bank.[62] Prior to the flotation, Britvic purchased the water division from rival Ben Shaw, who manufactured
