Cork-based brewer Beamish & Crawford has said its Irish turnover grew by 8% last year to €128.7m. The company is owned by Scottish & Newcastle, which has agreed to be taken over by Carlsberg and Heineken. The deal will see Heineken take control of S&N's Irish business.
Beamish said its stout gained market share in a market which declined by 3%, while its Miller and Foster's lager brands also performed strongly. But the company said the Irish cider market fell for the first time in several years.
Beamish & Crawford said the overall beer and cider market fell 0.4% last year, with a particularly sharp fall of 4.6% in the Dublin pub sector.
Managing director Alf Smiddy said it was uncertain what impact the takeover deal would have on the business.
Meanwhile, parent company Scottish & Newcastle said its 2007 pre-tax profit was unchanged and it expected core markets to grow this year.
The Edinburgh-based brewer reported 2007 pre-tax profits of £444m sterling, on sales up 8% at £4.15 billion. It is not paying a dividend because of the takeover.
Last month, Denmark's Carlsberg and Amsterdam-based Heineken agreed to buy S&N for 800 pence a share, or £7.8 billion in cash to carve up the brewer of Foster's, Kronenbourg and Newcastle Brown Ale.
S&N forecast 'an improvement in our core western European markets in 2008 following unprecedented poor weather across our markets in the key trading period in 2007.'
'While we foresee a rise of 8.5% in input costs, we expect to mitigate this through substantial price increases combined with cost reduction plans,' it said.
Under the break-up plan, Carlsberg acquires S&N's 50% stake in Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) to get full control of the brewer of Baltika in the former Soviet Union, and also S&N's interests in France, Greece, China and Vietnam.
Heineken will take over S&N's British business, which includes Strongbow cider and John Smith's beer, along with its operations in other European markets such as Belgium, Portugal and Ireland, plus its US and India businesses.
