London, March 30 - Scottish drinks maker A.G. Barr Plc met expectations with a 9.7 percent increase in full-year profit and said on Monday sales in its new fiscal year were ahead of last year.
The company, best known for its bright orange Irn Bru drink, posted pretax profit of 23.4 million pounds ($33.5 million) for the year to the end of January, in line with a consensus forecast on Reuters Estimates of 23 million.
Sales rose 14.4 percent to 169.7 million
The group, which said sales of Irn Bru and Diet Irn Bru rose 8 percent during the year, raised the total dividend by 7.7 percent to 42 pence per share.
"This (dividend) increase demonstrates our continuing confidence in the ability of our company to maintain its progress despite the current economic uncertainties," Chief Executive Roger White said in a statement.
A.G. Barr, which also produces Dandelion & Burdock, Rubicon and Tizer drinks, said like-for-like sales in the first seven weeks of the new financial year were ahead of the same period last year.
Last year's acquisition of Groupe Rubicon left the group with a year-end net debt of 31.3 million pounds.
However, the group said it has sound banking facilities in place until July 2013.
Shares in A.G. Barr, which have lost 7 percent of their value in the last three months, closed at 1,230 pence on Friday, valuing the group at around 240 million pounds.