SUFFOLK beer drinkers may still be drowning their sorrows following the shock news of the Tolly Cobbold merger, but there is still a shining star in the county.

SUFFOLK beer drinkers may still be drowning their sorrows following the shock news of the Tolly Cobbold merger, but there is still a shining star in the county.

Bury St. Edmunds brewers Greene King, have shown they are still on the road to success.

This year's figures have revealed that the old favourites such as Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale, Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles County are still regularly being passed across the bar.

The company turnover was up by 15 per cent this year and profits soared by seven per cent.

Rooney Anand is managing director of Greene King's brewing and brands division.

He said the company was extremely pleased with this years figures and the country can hopefully look forward to more of the same in the coming year.

He said: "We have not really done anything different in the past year and just stuck to a proven formula of success."

From their homeland in Suffolk they are continuing to branch outwards and have already taken on board Olde English Inns and Oxford company Morrells.

But he admitted it was sad to see their old competition, Tolly Cobbold merging with another company.

He said: "It is always sad to see an independent brewer go but there is an inevitability that there will be a consolidation in the brewing sector these days."