Fever-Tree shares hit record high as profits double to £24m

SHARES in Fever-Tree soared nearly 18pc as the nation’s thirst for premium tonic showed little sign of abating.

The Chelsea-based drink-mixer firm said earnings for the full-year would come in ahead of expectations, after toasting rising sales and profits.

Profits more than doubled in the six months to June 30 – jumping 104pc to £24.1m – while sales were 77pc higher than the same period a year before at £71.9m.

The UK remained the company’s key market – up 113pc thanks to distribution deals with airlines and supermarkets.

The news sent shares soaring 17.9pc, or 313p, to a record high of 2058p. Shares have risen by more than 1000pc since it listed on the London Stock Exchange three years ago.

Someone who invested £1,000 when the firm floated at 134p in 2014 would be sitting on shares worth £15,358 today. Fever-Tree has also been boosted by strong sales at pubs and supermarkets amid rising gin sales, which surpassed £1bn for the first time last year.

Earlier this month it signed a deal with Virgin Atlantic to supply its Indian tonic, light tonic, premium lemonade and ginger ale across the airline’s fleet. The firm previously struck a similar deal with British Airways and also supplies drinks to budget flyer EasyJet.

Fever-Tree was founded by exadvertising executive Tim Warrillow ( pictured) and gin expert Charles Rolls in 2005 – whose shares in the company are worth a combined total of nearly £425m. The pair met in 2004 and decided to enter the tonics business after discovering most tonics were filled with artificial sweeteners and cheap aromatics. The duo spent 18 months finding a recipe they were happy with and, in an effort to find the perfect ingredients, flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo to source pharmaceutical grade quinine.