Dublin, March 2 - Irish drinks group C&C plans to write down the value of its flagship plant by 130 million euros ($164 million) as recession, weather and currency problems hit its cider sales, it said on Tuesday.
It expects revenue from continuing operations in the year to the end of February to have fallen by 13 percent in constant currency terms, with revenue from cider sales down 17 percent.
It will respond to falling demand by offloading surplus apple juice, the raw material for cider, resulting in a further write down of about 11 million euros, it said.
"Full-year 2009/10 operating profit (is) currently targeted to be within 5 million euros (below) full-year 2008/09 underlying performance of 82 million euros," it said, adding that the underlying figure was net of depreciation and foreign exchange impacts.