Summer should be a good time for selling soft drinks. But in 2006, Britvic, whose Robinsons Barley Water has been rejuvenating Wimbledon’s tennis stars for years, was itself up against a few break points in the stock markets. It responded by sending its leadership team on a “retreat” run by Waverley Learning that has brought out the aces in them all.

Britvic, producer of R Whites, Pepsi, J2O, 7UP, Tango and Purdey’s, as well as Robinsons, was formerly owned by Whitbread, PepsiCo, Intercontinental Hotels and Pernod Ricard. It cut loose from its parent companies and floated on the stock market in 2005, valued at £494m.