Murphy's sales slip

Whitbread, the British beer-to-pizza group, yesterday said that Murphy had suffered a "minor loss" of its share of the British stout market, taking its market share down by about one percentage point to 12 per cent. The setback was disclosed with financial results from Whitbread, detailing a 3 per cent growth in 1998-99 pre-tax profits to £365 million sterling, earned on turnover up 2.9 per cent at £3.41 billion. Murphy stout has been distributed by Whitbread in Britain for the past 10 years.