The maker of Magners cider today became the latest victim of the UK’s dismal summer after warning that wet weather and a price war will flatten profits this year.

Shares in Dublin-based C&C tumbled more than 12 per cent as it cut sales expectations and said that annual operating profits were now only likely to match the level achieved a year ago. It had been forecasting profit growth of 15 to 20 per cent.

The warning came despite figures that revealed Magners UK sales rose 89 per cent in the three months to the end of May.

Maurice Pratt, the C&C chief executive, said that the wet weather in the last six weeks had thrown the group’s growth strategy “off course”.

It began rolling Magners out across the UK last year and saw this summer as a critical period for picking up new customers and cementing the brand’s position.

Mr Pratt said: “Last year was an exceptional summer and there was no way we could factor in that this summer would be just as exceptional in the other sense. We’ve had cold, wet weather, flooding, and that is fundamentally what is at play here.”

C&C admitted that it was also coming under increasing pressure from Scottish & Newcastle, which re-launched Bulmers last year in a bid to cash in on the huge growth in the cider market sparked by Magners.

Scottish & Newcastle last week warned that the wet weather had knocked beer sales but said that it was seeing strong growth in cider. Shares in S&N fell 4p to 631p while Britvic dropped 2 per cent. C&C was down €1.25 at €8.85.

C&C’s operating margin in the three months to the end of May, the first quarter of its financial year, fell 3 per cent on a higher marketing bill, raw material prices and the cost of its expansion drive.

Mr Pratt insisted the group was pressing ahead with plans to launch Magners in Germany and Spain. The cider has been tested in Munich and Barcelona and a final decision will be taken in October.

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