Takeovers and Mergers - Irn-Bru Meets Fruit Shoot

It sounds like an odd combination - mixing Irn-Bru with Fruit Shoot. But you never know - it might work. Shareholders in the firms that make Irn-Bru (AG Barr) and Fruit Shoot (Britvic) will be hoping that the combination of their respective product portfolios will taste a little better after a £1.5bn merger which has been agreed today. The merger will be bad news for some employees at the two businesses. As part of the merger plan up to 500 jobs are expected to be lost as the combined business aims to achieve £35m of annual cost-saving by cutting the combined headcount of 4,000 workers by 8-12%.It is claimed that the aim of the merger is to "create a world-class soft drinks company" and, not surprisingly, the management who will lead the combined firm are pretty positive about the strategic rationale for the merger:"AG Barr and Britvic are a fantastic fit with complementary strengths and we will benefit from very significant synergies," claims Gerald Corbett, the chairman of Britvic who will continue in the same role at the combined company.