Licensees 'outraged' after Britvic ups the price of Pepsi syrup

David Trotman, who owns the New Inn in Northampton, said he noticed that Pepsi syrup boxes reduced from 12 litres to seven litres “around three weeks ago” but he has not received any formal notification.

He trades through Marston’s and said it means he now pays £31 for seven litres instead of £37.67 for 12 litres, which works out as £1.29 or 41% more a litre.

“A seven litre box is no good at all because in this weather we sell loads of it, so I’ll be up and down all the time changing the boxes,” he said.

“It’s wrong to put something up [in price] and not notify people. These things should be highlighted.”

'Outrage'​

Nicci Black, who runs the Admiral Taverns-owned Wuthering Heights in Stanbury, West Yorkshire, said she is “outraged” about the changes.

“I would have expected somebody to have said something about it, but it seems to have come as much of a surprise to people at
telesales when we put our order in,” she said.

“Prices are set as part of your tenancy agreement and usually anything that will change happens at the beginning of the year. But in this instance the price hasn’t changed, the actual product has.”

An Admiral Taverns spokesman confirmed a 12 litre box used to cost £49.89, and now licensees are sold seven litre boxes at £34.50, which is a 76p per litre or 18% increase.

He added that the changes were outlined in the May issue of Agenda magazine and in a profit guide distributed to licensees.

Investment programme​

Britvic, the producer of Pepsi, said it rolled out a new investment programme in early May which has affected all aspects of its dispense offer, including the size of the bag-in-box, the quality of the syrup and the dispense equipment.

"To support this investment, we have had to pass some of the cost onto our customers, but our draught products remain a highly valuable proposition for our customers and very competitive in the market place," a spokeswoman said.

"MRSPs have increased accordingly however Britvic cannot and does not impose fixed or minimum retail or wholesale prices on its customers and therefore such pricing is always at the customer’s sole discretion."

"For free-trade and tenanted operators, our new range of 7-litre packs are being distributed through our wholesale and leasco partners who should be communicating these changes to each of their customers or partners.

"We have also communicated these changes through the distribution of printed materials, trade press news stories, trade press advertising and our project microsite – britvicdispense.co.uk."