47153 AG Barr Annual Report 2025 AW4 SQ WEB - Flipbook - Page 50
A.G. BARR p.l.c. Annual Report and Accounts 2025
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS REPORT CONTINUED
Pricing information and promotional offers will
be presented accurately and transparently. Any
discounts, promotions, or special offers will be
clearly stated, including any terms and conditions
that may apply.
COMMITMENT 3
We support
healthy living
Calorie reduction
Our job has always been, and continues to be,
about understanding consumers and their
changing tastes and preferences, and providing
them with great products and choice.
In response to our consumers’ changing needs
and their desire to reduce total calories consumed,
we have continued to significantly reduce the
total sugar content and calorie count across our
products, both through the reformulation of
existing products and the launch of zero sugar
products during the year. To aid portion control,
we offer our products in a range of pack sizes.
High Fat, Sugar, and Salt (HFSS) products have
been subject to price and location restrictions
in England since 2022. These products include
‘high sugar’ standard soft drinks with greater
than 4.5g total sugar content per 100ml and, by
this definition, 97% of our current Barr Soft Drinks
portfolio is HFSS exempt.
48
Labelling
We are committed to providing clear calorie
and nutritional information on our packs and/or
our websites to help consumers make informed
choices. We were one of the earliest adopters
of the government’s voluntary front of pack
nutritional labelling on all our Company-owned
Barr Soft Drinks brands, which is a simple traffic
light style scheme, making it even easier for
consumers to find the information they need.
We integrate calorie-related callouts into our
packaging designs to further aid consumer
awareness.
We take our responsibility in how we market,
promote and advertise our products very seriously.
orientation. We will not seek to mislead our
consumers through false, exaggerated or
ambiguous claims. Any claims about our
products, their benefits, or nutritional content
will be substantiated by reliable evidence.
Similarly, we will avoid ‘greenwashing’ and we
will not make any environmental claims that are
false, exaggerated, ambiguous, or which cannot
be substantiated by reliable evidence.
Our Responsible Marketing Code of Conduct
(available on our corporate website) sets out
our commitment to ensuring that our marketing
communications are at all times clear, accurate
and not misleading. We comply with the letter
and the spirit of all applicable laws and
regulations and, where applicable, all voluntary
industry codes. Our marketing communications
will not use language or present imagery that
may be seen as derogatory or offensive to any
particular group of people, including those
defined by gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual
We advertise responsibly, ensuring our
advertising is age appropriate, beyond
regulatory requirements – for example, across
all of our brands we will not target under 12’s
through direct communication or indirectly by, for
example, associating with celebrities, influencers,
or events, who or which have a primary appeal
to under 12’s. In addition, we never advertise
HFSS, caffeinated or energy products to under
16s. In advertising our FUNKIN cocktail range,
we adhere to an enhanced Code of Conduct
for the promotion of alcoholic beverages.
Similarly, the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL),
known colloquially as the ‘sugar tax’, has an
exemption threshold of less than 5g total sugar
per 100ml, therefore 97% of our Barr Soft Drinks
portfolio is also exempt from the SDIL.
Responsible advertising and marketing
We fully comply with all of the appropriate
regulations and in some cases go beyond the
standards set, such as in the area of energy
drinks where our industry code exceeds
regulatory requirements.
Research and Development
Our in-house research and development
team delivers a wide range of innovation and
reformulation projects, following regular and
thorough consumer research to better understand
our consumers’ changing preferences.
We aim to help people lead healthier lifestyles
and understand that consumer choice is
increasingly influenced by nutritional content.
We’re expanding our products accordingly,
already offering non-alcoholic alternatives
in our FUNKIN cocktail range, and developing
Rubicon products with a higher vitamin content.
