HEINEKEN, the Dutch brewer that carved up Scottish & Newcastle brewers along with Carlsberg, said yesterday that it grabbed a bigger share of a shrinking UK beer market during the past quarter, but volumes of Strongbow cider saw a "low single-digit decline".

Despite price increases, Heineken warned that pre-tax earnings would be down on the equivalent period last year.

It blamed poor weather in Britain and elsewhere in western Europe and increased marketing spend on its Open your World advertising campaign for the fall in earnings.

The Amsterdam-based group, which owns brands including Amstel, Kingfisher, Newcastle Brown Ale, Sol and Tiger, claimed the strong performance of its Foster’s and Heineken brands, backed by extensive TV advertising and boosted by the introduction of Foster’s Gold, allowed it to grow its share of a UK beer market that shrunk by 4.5% in the period.

Heineken is among a number of brewers that have suffered as consumer confidence wanes in the UK and western Europe, where it made almost half its revenue last year.

Sales across the business were up 0.6% to €4.65 billion (£4.05bn), with the brewer relying on central and eastern Europe and other emerging markets for much of the growth.

City analysts had expected sales of around €4.55m.

The world’s third-biggest brewer said revenues were up 3% on an organic basis, before allowing for the negative impact of currency fluctuations.

Consolidated beer volume in the period was up 2.7%, with higher sales in all regions apart from western Europe, where sales fell 1.7% from a year earlier because of poor summer weather.

“Volumes in every region are above expectations,” ING analyst Gerard Rijk said. “Given the bad weather, the volume decrease in western Europe isn’t that much and comes as a positive surprise.”

Other analysts said the company’s figures compare favourably with those of UK-based rival SABMiller, which last week reported first-half sales that missed estimates, admitting the “particularly poor” weather in Europe and China held back growth.

Heineken cut its estimates for earnings back in August, saying it expected organic net income to be “broadly” in line with last year – a forecast it reaffirmed yesterday.

Heineken bought Scottish & Newcastle with Carlsberg in 2008, chiefly getting the British assets, but expanded into emerging markets with an all-share purchase last year of the brewing assets of Mexico’s FEMSA. It also has a large presence in many African countries, most notably Nigeria.

Earlier this month, Wells & Young’s, which brews Bombardier and a number of other beers, bought Scottish beers McEwan’s and Younger’s from Heineken’s UK arm.

Wells & Young’s also bought Courage beers from Heineken.

The deal gave the Bedford-based brewer control of off-trade products including premium canned ale McEwan’s Export and bottled beer McEwan’s Champion Ale.