Scottish & Newcastle cheers

JOHN Smith's and Foster's brewer Scottish & Newcastle today soothed investors with news of robust trading despite the poor summer weather that has hit the likes of Coca-Cola and Unilever's drinks brands.

Triggered by the recent flurry of warnings from European consumer goods giants about summer sales, S&N issued a snapshot for the first time, updating the market about its performance.

'We felt the whole raft of bad news was over egging it a bit,' said finance director Ian McHoul. 'The summer wasn't wonderful, but it hasn't been that bad.'

Sales in Britain were showing early signs of benefiting from the declining popularity of so-called ready-to-drink (RTD) alcopop mixers.

After several years of seeing the likes of Smirnoff Ice eating into sales, beer, and particularly cider, were back on the rise in pubs and bars, McHoul said.

Kronenbourg and Strongbow have been the main beneficiaries, both recording double digit percentage sales growth in the first nine months of the year.

UK volumes in the group's biggest brands grew 5%.