TENNENT'S owner C&C Group has highlighted strong trading in Scotland but warned its cider sales remain under pressure.
The Dublin drinks group said both its Irish and Scottish arms had put in a "solid" performance between March 1 and July 3, the first four months of its financial year.
It said: "Comparatives for the second quarter are tougher but the business remains on track for good earnings growth from both territories."
The integration of the Irvine based Wallaces Express drinks wholesale business, which C&C took full control of in March, is said to be progressing well and should complete before the end of the financial year.
C&C said cider sales in England and Wales were challenging but it felt progress had been made towards improving performance of brands such as Magners, Gaymers, Blackthorn and Bulmers.
In the United States, where C&C owns Hornsby and the Vermont Hard Cider Company, trading was said to be weak but in line with expectation.
It has started a new marketing campaign and repackaged its Woodchuck brand after it lost its market leading position to Boston Beer Company's Angry Orchard in June.
A new $34 million cidery is expected to open in the US towards the end of August.
Meanwhile volumes in other export markets were said to have grown in double digit percentage in the same four months.
Tennent's has been performing particularly strongly in Italy but is also in a number of other markets.
Niche products such as Tennent's Beer Aged with Whisky Oak and low alcohol Lemon T have been launched in outlets in Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article