The first full quarter results report that total volumes of brewed products continue to show improvement on last year and are now flat year on year. This good performance was driven primarily by encouraging Red Stripe volumes, both in the domestic market (+ 2% on last year) and to the United States (+14% on last year). However, the performance was offset by lower Guiness, Hieneken and Dragon volumes, couple with the continued decrease in exports to other Caribbean countries.
Turnover for the nine month period ended March 31, 2000 was down by 10% driven primarily by the loss of the soft drinks revenues. Turnover of the brewed products only business were up 5% on last year.
Operating profits at $790M were up 25% on last year which resulted primarily from increased sales, lower fixed operating costs and increased interest income. Profit before tax at $917M was up 72% due to the one off benefit accruing from the profit on the sale of the soft drink business.
