Kirin Beverage Corp. said Wednesday it registered a record 319.2 billion yen in group sales in the business year that ended Dec. 31, up 5 percent over the previous year.
The strong result stemmed largely from record-breaking sales of "Kirin Namacha" and "Kirin Amino Supli" beverages, an official of the Kirin Brewery Co. subsidiary said.
The sales increase and cuts in materials and production costs helped the company chalk up a group net profit of 6.12 billion yen, up 77 percent over the previous year.
The sharp profit increase also reflects the steep profit fall Kirin Beverage incurred the previous year when it had to cover pension fund shortages.
Consolidated pretax profit increased 9.8 percent to 13.52 billion yen. Group net profit per share rose to 112.47 yen from 63.53 yen.
Kirin Beverage will pay a full-year dividend of 20 yen per share for the just-ended business year, including an interim dividend of 10 yen, up 2 yen from the preceding year.
For the current business year, the Tokyo-based company forecasts consolidated net and pretax profits of 7.9 billion yen and 14.3 billion yen, respectively, on group sales of 358 billion yen.