Dunbartonshire soft drinks giant AG Barr, the maker of the quintessentially Scottish Irn-Bru as well as much-loved brands like Tizer, Rubicon and Boost Energy Drinks, has bagged a pair of English soft drink rivals in deals totalling over £50m.
The Cumbernauld-HQ’d juice juggernaut, which also has a regional office in Bolton, Greater Manchester, has acquired Hexham-based Fentimans in the North East and Devon juice brand Frobishers, it confirmed this morning.
AG Barr told shareholders ahead of its annual results that it completed a circa £38m deal to buy Fentimans on Monday, in a deal funded through a combination of cash and debt.
Meanwhile, it also confirmed it had closed a deal at the end of its financial year to January to buy Exeter’s Frobishers for £13m.
The Scottish firm unveiled the acquisitions as it reported a “strong” financial year, with increases in sales and profitability.
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“Both brands operate in the attractive adult soft drinks market, which is benefitting from the consumer trend of reduced alcohol consumption,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“These acquisitions reflect the execution of further meaningful and targeted M&A to elevate growth through broadening the brand portfolio while providing opportunities for cost synergies.”
Euan Sutherland, chief executive of AG Barr, said the company’s top and bottom-line performance for full-year 2025-26 was in line with expectations, and the business had “laid strong foundations” for future growth.
“We enter FY26/27 with good momentum in our core brands and from the introduction of exciting new products,” he said.
Irn-Bru, often cheekily tagged “Scotland’s other national drink” after Scotch whisky, is a carbonated soft drink of indeterminate flavour – a lack of clarity the makers have at times leaned into, such as during the 2023 “Let’s just agree it tastes bangin’” campaign, which saw fans argue about what the drink actually tasted of – that was introduced in 1901 and is produced at the firm’s Cumbernauld base.
It has topped soft drink sales charts in Scotland for over a century, regularly seeing off global rivals such as Coca-Cola, and is also sold all over the world, particularly in locations with a significant Scottish community. It is perhaps unique in the soft drinks world in that it even has its own tartan, originally designed in 1969.
