(Reuters) - Premium tonic water maker Fevertree Drinks Plc on Tuesday reported a 34 percent jump in annual adjusted core earnings, as Britons' gin thirst grew and supported demand for the company's mixers.
Fevertree, which is the second largest company on London's junior market, has shown double-digit growth over the last few years as high-end gin increasingly continued to be coupled with premium tonic water.
The company, named after the colloquial term for the cinchona tree, the bark of which produces tonic water ingredient quinine, said more gin was sold during the three months of the summer in 2018 than the summers of 2014 and 2015 combined.
Sales in the UK grew slightly above expectations, the company said, owing to the prolonged hot summer and as gin's popularity was boosted by the Football World Cup and the Royal Wedding in 2018.
The company has also been pushing into the United States and had recently launched a variety of new ginger ale that mixes with alcohol like whisky, rum and brandy in a market that predominantly consumes dark spirits.
Fevertree also said it expects results for the year to be in line with its expectations.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to 78.6 million pounds in the year ended Dec.31 from 58.7 million pounds a year earlier.
Revenue rose 40 percent to 237.4 million pounds.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
