Spirits giant Diageo has posted a rise in profits for the year as the gin boom continued to drive sales growth in the UK.

The Gordon's owner saw operating profits jump by nine per cent to £4 billion for the year to June 30.

The company said rising profits were driven by organic growth of its key brands following significant investment.

Sales for the year rose by 5.8% to £12.8 billion on the back of growth "across regions and categories" and successful new product innovation, the company said.

Diageo said sales remained strong in Europe, pushed higher by a particularly strong performance in the UK and Ireland, where it has continued to pump investment over recent years.

READ MORE: Diageo plays down Brexit impact as shares hit all-time high

The company's chief finance officer Kathryn Mikells said that the "gin phenomenon" has continued to drive sales globally, but particularly in continental Europe and the UK.

She said: "The growth of gin has been contagious across all areas and that has continued to accelerate as we have launched new products in the category.

"The category is growing but we have also strengthened our market share in gin, so we feel pretty good about the category going forward."

Brands Tanqueray and Gordon's both reported double-digit growth in Europe as they were boosted by new product releases, such as Gordon's pink gin.

The spirits giant also hailed strong growth for Johnnie Walker, which saw sales rise by 7%, although in Europe Scotch sales were largely flat as this was offset by weaker sales of J&B.

Earlier this week, talks between Diageo and its Scottish union workers fell apart, increasing the likelihood of strikes at its whisky sites.

It comes as members of the Unite and GMB unions, who make up more than half of Diageo's 3,500 Scottish workforce, are ballot workers over strike action after rejecting a  2.8% pay increase.

Ms Mikells said the firm holds itself as a "very good employer" and that it is committed to coming to agreement with frustrated employees.

READ MORE: Strike would bring Diageo whisky production to 'standstill' in Scotland

In North America, Diageo's largest market, net sales rose by 5% to £4.4 billion as it also saw profitability improve on the back of its sale of a portfolio of 19 spirit brands to Sazerac for 550 million US dollars (£440 million).

Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo, said: "Diageo has delivered another year of strong performance.

"Organic volume and net sales growth was broad-based across regions and categories, with new product innovation being a strong contributor.

"These results reflect the steady progress we are making and as we look ahead we see attractive opportunities to deliver consistent growth and create shareholder value."

The Magnum, Carte d'or and Ben & Jerry's owner has admitted ice cream sales took a hit in spring and early summer this year due to the cooler weather.

Unilever, which also owns brands including Hellmans and Dove, said the previous two summers had started positively, but this year - particularly in May - the weather had been far too cool.

Chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly said: "There were a number of swings and roundabouts. It seems ironic with record temperatures (today) but during the period it was quite negative with strong early summers before."

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It comes as the business revealed that total sales in the six months to June 30 rose 3.2% to 26.1 billion euros (£23.3 billion) with pre-tax profits up 0.6% to 4.4 billion euros (£3.9 billion).

Elsewhere, the company said it had a strong six months in emerging markets, but was weaker in more established areas.
Europe was particularly bad, with sales down 0.6% to 5.8 billion euros (£5.2 billion), but this was offset in Asia, where sales jumped 6.2% to 12.2 billion euros (£10.9 billion).

Mr Pitkethly said Western Europe - and France, the UK and Germany in particular - suffered the most, while Eastern Europe saw a strong performance, especially with a boost in detergents.

Facebook has reported strong quarterly results despite a £4 billion fine, though scrutiny of the firm shows no sign of easing with the revelation of a new antitrust investigation against it.

The social network said that it was informed of the probe by the US Federal Trade Commission in June - the same agency it agreed to pay a fine for privacy violations.

"The online technology industry and our company have received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter," Facebook said.

"In June 2019, we were informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of our company.

"In addition, in July 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it will begin an antitrust review of market-leading online platforms."

Despite this, the tech giant shared details of healthy revenue at 16.9 billion dollars (£13.4 billion) for the three months up to June 30, an increase of more than £3 billion on the 13.2 billion dollars (£10.5 billion) it achieved during the same period last year.

Total costs and expenses took a noticeable jump in the last six months, at more than £8 billion compared to the previous year, as the tech giant factored in two billion dollars (£1.6 billion) and five billion dollars (£4 billion) of legal expenses accrued from the FTC fine.