Net revenue declined 2% to €263.4 million for C&C Group in H1, according to accounts just filed by the company, with the “difficult trading environment” in Ireland and the UK resulting in a decline in operating profit (before exceptional items) of 2.7% to €65.6 million. Strong performance from Tennents and from its International portfolio of brands helped “offset weak core cider markets”, the company said.
Elsewhere, the founder of Vermont Hard Cider Company (VHCC), the American cider maker purchased for $305 million by C&C last month, has remarked that the price paid by the Irish group for the business was “crazy”. Joseph Cernaglia, who founded the business in 1991, commented deal between C&C and current VHCC owner Bret Williams in the Sunday Times, saying “I know that company, I built it, and that is some deal. I take my hat off to Bret. He is some salesman.”
Cernaglia sold the business to HP Bulmer in 1998 for $15 million, and it was subsequently sold to Williams for $2.3 million in 2003. The paper noted that Williams has made a 13,160% return on his initial investment in less than a decade.
