C&C, the publicly-quoted company that owns the Bulmers, Magners, Tennents and Tipperary Water drinks brands has announced a fall of 9 percent in operating profits to €115m for the year to the end of February.

The results, which are in line with reduced market expectations, reflect very challenging conditions for the company in all markets, particularly in the highly-competitive US market where it has opened a new cider brewery in Vermont and where it has written down the value of its assets by €150m.

Operating profits in the group’s core Ireland and Scotland drinks markets did rise modestly – by less than 2 percent - though the company notes that it’s been affected by Scotland's new tougher drink driving laws.

The group’s wholesale brands business in Ireland was also hit by strong competitive pressures and lower pricing, which it says are likely to continue, operating profits here fell by €6m to €10.4m.

The company says it has made a “decent start” to the current year and has provided some encouragement to investors by increasing the final dividend by 23 percent to 7c per share.

The company had been linked with a €1bn deal to take control of the Spirit pub group in 2014. If C&C had bought Spirit it would have gained control of 1,200 pubs across Britain, improving its access to the UK market - this deal eventually fell through.