Asahi Breweries Ltd. hit record highs both in sales and pretax profits for the first half of this year, thanks to the continued popularity of Super Dry brand products, according to a financial statement released Friday.

Asahi's unconsolidated sales increased 4.2 percent to hit 478.2 billion yen for the January-June period, with pretax profits of 22.1 billion yen, up 19.9 percent from the same period last year.

Unit sales of Super Dry products grew 4.6 percent from a year ago, although the overall beer market shrank 7.6 percent, Asahi officials said. Sales of Super Dry products have continued to mark year-on-year increases for 47 consecutive months.

Kirin Brewery Co. meanwhile posted 514.46 billion yen in sales, up 0.1 percent from the same period last year, with pretax profits of 30.7 billion yen, up 19.2 percent.

Kirin attributed the increase in profits to changes in tax payment clarification, cost-cutting efforts and growing sales of "foaming alcoholic drinks," or beer-like drinks with less use of malts.

Kirin's sales of beer products totaled 394.2 billion yen, down 11.6 percent, while those of foaming drinks were 99.6 billion yen, up 100.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. recorded sales of 223.19 billion yen, down 12.2 percent, and pretax profits of 3.39 billion yen, down 42.2 percent on a year-on-year basis.