Brewer Scottish & Newcastle today showed rising profits despite the UK beer market being depressed by the poor summer.

Pre-tax profit, before one-off costs, was ahead eight per cent in the half year to October 29, up to £241 million, on a 28 per cent increase in turnover to £2.18 billion.

Finance director Derek Wilkinson said the company had now made significant progress in transforming the business with the sale of both its Pontins and Center Parcs holiday businesses.

The cost of these disposals meant that overall, the group reported a pre-tax loss of £95.6 million, against a profit of £205.8million last time.

S&N said it was including a £245 million one-off cost in the results as part of the Center Parc disposals, while the Pontins sale had resulted in a loss of £72 million.

Agreement on Center Parcs was reached last month, outside the reporting period.

The UK beer market had seen a particularly difficult summer, with volumes declining by 3.6 per cent.

Despite this, the Scottish Courage profit had grown by four per cent and seen only a 1.1 per cent decline in volumes. The brewer's other brands saw a four per cent increase in sales, with its newly acquired Kronenbourg 1664 brand seeing a 23 per cent rise.

Mr Wilkinson blamed the decline in UK volumes on the unseasonal summer weather, meaning people did not sit outside in pub gardens.

"When pub gardens do not trade well, the industry suffers," he said.

Turnover in the beer business as a whole was £1.33 billion, compared with £1.03 billion, a 29.4 per cent increase. Operating profit was ahead 39.7 per cent at £143million.

But the tough UK conditions meant turnover here only rose by 0.4 per cent, to £1 billion, with operating profit ahead 4.3 per cent at £102 million.