Turnover in the quarter increased 20.8 percent to 15,536 million rupees while income from other investments had gone up by 13 percent to 1,352 million.

The group, whose main business is making and marketing liquor products, said cost of sales spiked 71 percent to 10,930 million from 6,392 million rupees, compared to the same period the year before.

Distribution costs were also higher at 350.7 million rupees from 304.4 million rupees.

Distilleries group's earnings per share were up by 32 cents to 2.25 rupees during the quarter ended March 2008.

Group assets were up 20.4 percent or 15,047 million rupees to 88,718 million rupees.

The Distilleries share traded at 105.00 flat in morning trade Wednesday.

The group's turnover for the year went up 19.3 percent to 55.7 billion rupees with the cost of sales up 44.4 percent to 29 billion rupees and distribution costs rising 21 percent to 1.27 billion rupees.

Income from other investments in the financial year went up 10.8 percent to five billion rupees.