C&C said today fast growth in its cider brands meant sales and operating profit had been "significantly" ahead of expectations so far this year, driving shares in the drinks group to a new high.
"This primarily reflects better than expected Magners' sales growth following its UK national roll-out in March of this year," the company said of the performance by its international cider brand in the first four months of its business year.
"It also reflects Bulmers' continuing out-performance of the Irish Long Alcohol Drinks (LAD) market and the benefit of good early summer weather," C&C said in a statement to shareholders.
Chief Executive Maurice Pratt did not update C&C's guidance for a double digit percentage increase in full-year earnings but pointed to the company's comments on the year to date.
"You can impute from that that we're performing ahead of our previous guidance," he told journalists, adding the company would revise its forecasts when it issues a mid-year trading statement at the end of August.
Shares in C&C, which have more than tripled since the company listed in May 2004, struck a fresh lifetime high of €7.45 today before retreating slightly to trade 5.3 per cent higher on the day at €7.38.
Having said in May profit growth would be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year due to marketing costs from the roll out of Magners cider across the UK, Mr Pratt said the strong performance to date had altered that scenario.
"Obviously it's going to change somewhat given ... that we're performing significantly ahead of markets," he said.
