AG Barr shares have risen by 1.6% as the UK soft drinks firm booked a 21% increase in full-year profits on a market that has proved more resilient than expected.

Shares in the Irn-Bru maker reached 915 pence, up 14.50 pence at 12.42 GMT today (22 March) as the firm “significantly outperformed” the UK soft drinks market with strong growth in its carbonate brands in 2009.

Normalised profits before tax (pre exceptional items) for the year ended 30 January 2010 increased to GBP27.9m (US$41.9m). Profits before tax for the 12-month period rose to GBP24.5m, an increase on the prior year of 5.3% after charging exceptional items of GBP3.4m.

Altium Securities analyst Wayne Brown told just-drinks it was a “solid” set of results against a backdrop of a “challenged economy”.

“The whole UK soft drinks market has proved to be a lot more resilient than what we had all anticipated and certainly there are some significant winners,” Brown said.

“AG Barr is chipping away with like-for like sales growth of 10.6% against a market that is only up 2%, which highlights some impressive market share gains.

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