AG Barr to cut about 10 percent of workforce, on track to cut sugar content

(Reuters) - AG Barr, the maker of popular Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru, said it would lay off about 10 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring.

The company said it was planning to implement most of the restructuring before the end of the financial year, and about 90 jobs were likely to be cut in commercial and supply chain functions.

The job cuts come at a time when the company and its rivals including Britvic Plc face a slowdown in demand from increasingly calorie-conscious consumers and an impending British government tax on sugar-sweetened fizzy drinks.

AG Barr said on Tuesday it was on track to reduce or eliminate sugar from more than two-thirds of its product portfolio by 2018.

The company, which sells Tizer, Rubicon, and Strathmore water, said it was likely to take a charge of about 4 million pounds ($5.20 million) for the year from the restructuring. The company said it would record an ongoing annual benefit of about 3 million pounds.

Shares of the company, which have slipped about 2 percent so far this year, were trading nearly flat at 520.5 pence at 0739 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)