AG Barr merger with Britvic on the rocks On Tuesday, the commission said it believed the proposed deal between Britvic and AG Barr, the maker of Irn-Bru, is "not expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition and would not cause wholesale prices to increase significantly." The commission is expected to publish its final conclusion by the end of July, at which time Britvic and AG Barr will can resume discussions or call off the deal. Mr White, the chief executive of AG Barr, said he was "pleased" with the findings. He added: "We still believe in strategic logic of the deal. They [Britvic] obviously have their own view and they are entitled to that. We will review this again in due course. We believed in the deal before, but we don't need to do it. Britvic's tone towards the deal has changed after Simon Litherland, a former Diageo executive, was appointed the new chief executive and outlined a strategy for Britvic to cut costs by closing two factories in the UK. Mr Corbett said: "The cost savings from merging are less, we are performing better, we have new management and we have a new strategy to deliver good growth internationally as well as in the UK."