Pernod Ricard, the French drinks group that owns Irish Distillers, increased net sales by 9.1 per cent to 9.6 billion francs (£1.15 billion) for the first half of this year, the company said yesterday. Net profits were down 3.3 per cent to 518 million francs (£62 million), but the company said the percentage drop was caused by an exceptional sale of assets in the 1997 period, and that underlying profits in fact climbed by 6.7 per cent.

For the full year, the company said it expected growth in pre-tax profits of around 5 per cent.