GERALD Corbett, the soft drinks executive who came close to striking a merger deal between AG Barr and Britvic, is stepping down as chairman of the Fruit Shoot and J20 producer.

Mr Corbett, who has been chairman of Britvic since its stock market flotation in 2005, will be replaced by tobacco industry veteran John Daly on September 1.

During his tenure, Mr Corbett was involved in negotiations with Barr which came close to concluding a bumper tie-up in 2013. He will retire from the Britvic board when Mr Daly takes over.

Britvic announced Mr Corbett’s departure as it reported a 4.9 per cent fall in half-year profits to £38.6 million, with earnings dented by £5.8m of exceptional and one-off items. The company cited the impact of underlying cost inflation and the “additional burden” brought by raw material cost increases. Those costs have increased because of the drop in sterling’s value since the Brexit vote, as the company purchases raw materials in either euros or US dollars.

Revenue at the firm, which bottles and distributes Pepsi in the UK, was up 11.5 per cent to £756.3m in the 28 weeks to April 16.

Britvic’s results were also impacted by one-off charges linked to its restructuring programme, the closure of its Indian operations and the acquisition and integration of Brazilian juice firm Bela Ischia, acquired for £54.5m

Chief executive Simon Litherland said: “Britvic has delivered a strong first half performance driven by organic revenue growth in all our markets and successful management of input cost inflation.”