Diageo, the world's biggest drinks maker¹, saw pre-tax profits increase by 12% to £2.24bn in the year to the end of June.

迪阿吉奥——世界上最大的饮料生产商，到今年六月底税前利润增长12%，达到22.4亿英镑。

Guinness is among Diageo's most famous brands

The firm, whose brands include Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, said developing markets had offset²（抵消，补偿） weakness in western Europe and the US.

Exposure to a wide range of markets left it confident for future growth, it added.

Diageo's overall sales grew 5% to £9.9bn.

Like other brewers（酿酒者，阴谋家） , the group's shares have been hit by significant rises in the price of wheat and barley³.

Drought（干旱，缺乏） and fires have devastated⁴ wheat crops in eastern Europe and led to Russia banning the export of grain（粮食，谷物） - pushing up prices.

Job cuts

Diageo gets about 40% of its profit in North America and more than a quarter from Europe, including the UK.

It has a large Scotch⁵ business in South America and a sizeable beer business in Africa - growth in those markets has kept up throughout the global downturn.

It is also building up a market in China, particularly with Johnnie Walker.

Diageo has been cutting jobs as part of a restructuring programme to trim £120m in costs.

It has started an £86m expansion of its bottling plant in Fife - a move which will boost production at the Leven facility and create about 400 jobs.

However, that followed the loss of 700 jobs at the Port Dundas distillery（酿酒厂） in Glasgow and the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock.