UK: The Belhaven Group plc, Scotland's largest independent regional brewer, saw on October 6 its shares climb 2% after reporting good trading in the first half of the year with "excellent" performances from both its pubs and brewing operations. Updating the market ahead of interim results, the group said its best-selling Belhaven Best draught ale made further progress, with volumes increasing by 5%. Meanwhile, profit margins held up across the business and costs were controlled, The Herald revealed on October 7.


The Dunbar, East Lothian-based firm has snapped up another five premises to take its estate to 250 after adding more than 50 outlets in the past year. All those acquired in the last 12 months are within the group's Scottish heartland and Belhaven hopes to expand its portfolio to 300 outlets by the end of the 2005 calendar year.

Stuart Ross, chief executive, said: "We are delighted to have reached this landmark; our pub acquisition programme is on track to meet the targets which we set when we raised additional equity last summer."

Since floating on the stock market, Belhaven has enjoyed eight years of uninterrupted growth and is hopeful of achieving 15 consecutive years of improvement in sales and profits since the current management team took control in 1989.

In a statement, Ross said sales had exceeded internal expectations and have been comfortably ahead of the previous year, despite unfavourable weather conditions in the summer months which were in stark contrast to 2003's record temperatures and prolonged heatwave. Belhaven is due to announce first-half results on November 29. House broker Collins Stewart recently forecast annual pre-tax profits of £16.7m for the current year. The shares rose 8.5p to 422p.

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