Poor summer takes the fizz out of business for soft drinks giant Hoop

The Hoop soft drinks producer ended Q2 with a loss of zł.0.5 million, mirroring the poor results of its subsidiary Megapack, a Russian company operating in the same sector, whose income was 17% lower than last year. Both firms are blaming their drop in profits on the bad weather. Megapack's Q2 income was over zł.33 million and the Hoop group's total income was zł.143.6 million. Hoop's sales declined by 17% to zł.106 million. "May and June were cold so the whole beverage trade faced problems. The decline in demand might have also been caused by a 15% price increase in our beverages since May 1st due to increasing sugar prices," explained Hoop's deputy president Marek Jutkiewicz. In Q2 Hoop sold 13% less fizzy drinks, 9% less non-fizzy drinks and 24% less mineral water. It also faced a decline in its market share, with a 12% grasp on the trade in June compared to 13.1% in March. After the first half of the year Hoop capital group's loss amounts to zł.3.3 million. (Parkiet, p. 6) D.W.