Sales at brewer Beamish & Crawford grew 8 per cent to almost €130 million in 2007, the company said yesterday.

The Cork company's parent, Scottish & Newcastle, released figures showing that the multi-national's 2007 operating profit, after a once-off loss for the sale of a French wholesaler, was £230 million sterling, from £278 million the previous year.

Beamish & Crawford said its sales in Ireland rose 8 per cent to €128.69 million in 2007, but did not release a profit figure.

Scottish & Newcastle's board recently recommended a bid from a consortium of drinks giants Heineken and Carlsberg for the company, but shareholders have yet to vote on the deal.

Commenting on the takeover bid yesterday, Beamish chairman and managing director Alf Smiddy said the process will take some months to complete.

"It is uncertain at this point the nature of the impact the transaction will have for Beamish & Crawford. Ultimately, when and if the consortium's bid for Scottish & Newcastle is successful, it will be a matter for Heineken to outline its plans for Beamish & Crawford."

Heineken owns the biggest-selling lager brand in Ireland, which is brewed at its Murphy Brewery in Cork, and it owns Murphy's Stout, which competes with Beamish.

The Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), the State's biggest publicans' lobby group, recently expressed concerns that the takeover could hit competition in the wholesale if it were to go ahead. According to a market review produced by Beamish & Crawford yesterday, stout's share of the Irish beer and cider market fell 3 per cent to 29 per cent in 2007.

The company said its stout brand continued to grow market share and was the second-biggest seller last year, with a 9 per cent slice of the total.