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A healthy passion fruit crop yield boosted drinks maker Britvic's sales by 4.8 per cent in the 12 weeks ending December 24th.

Crop recovery in Ecuador helped the firm to 6.8 per cent growth in its still-drinks division, with Britvic able to market its orange and passion fruit J20 variant.

Its carbonated drinks arm saw a slower sales rise of 2.4 per cent, but the company claims that this growth still outstrips its competitors during the same period.

At the firm's annual general meeting today, Britvic chairman Gerald Corbett said: "In the early weeks of 2007, our trading has continued in line with the trend seen before Christmas."

But he cautioned that the "continued focus on health and wellbeing" was likely to harm the group's financial outlook for the coming year.

Britvic, which is licensed to manufacture and sell Pepsi and 7Up until 2023, also cited strong performance in its Robinsons Squash and Fruit Shoot H20 products as being behind the 6.8 per cent growth in still drinks.