£100m in Highland Spring’s sights as turnover leaps 26%

Highland Spring has taken another stride towards its £100m million turnover goal, revealing record full-year sales.

The Perthshire-based firm, which bottles more than 350 million litres of water a year, said turnover last year rose by 26 per cent to £69.3m, with the figure set to top £80m in the current year.

The sales haul was boosted by the group’s acquisition of Greencore’s bottled water business in March 2010.

There was a more modest rise in operating profits last year – up 6 per cent to £4.6m.

Chief executive Les Montgomery said: “We were delighted to achieve such a significant increase in turnover and given the current economic climate and the impact of exceptional increases in packaging, energy and fuel, we were equally pleased to achieve an increase in profits.”

He added: “As bottled water specialists we embarked on a strategic programme to increase our scale within the market substantially to help us fulfill our vision to be a £100m turnover and 500 million litre business. Our 2010 results demonstrate that the strategy is paying off as we record our strongest ever financial performance.”

Montgomery described the outlook as “robust”.

The firm, which is based in Blackford, Perthsire, and has 400 staff across the group, said it had retained its number two position in the UK still water market in 2010, behind Evian, despite “fierce competition from global brands”. Montgomery said the group’s sparkling range had been particularly successful, recording a 7.8 per cent increase in sales and retaining its number one slot.

Earlier this year, Highland Spring – owned by the Dubai-based Al Tajir family – launched Hydr8, said to be the “fastest-selling unflavoured brand launch by value in the take-home sector in the last six years”. This summer saw the firm make its foray into the flavoured water market with the roll-out of Hydr8 Flavours.