Japanese Beverage and Food Company Suntory Beverages & Food Limited reported flat sales of -0.1% in its first quarter 2017. Total revenue for the three months ending in March fell to ¥308.9bn ($2.7bn).

However, the company said that it was able to boost profit by focusing on strengthening its brands, creating new demand, reforming its cost structure and improving product quality.

For its domestic products, it focused on creating demand by paying attention to products with high added value, in addition to strengthening core brands.

The firm which makes Lucozade and Ribena said that it carried out proactive marketing of its primary key brands in Europe such as Orangina, Oasis, Schweppes, Lucozade and Ribena. It noted that it focused on small format products in France, with sales surpassing previous year’s results.

In Asia, the beverage giant embarked on strengthening its key brands as well as sales and distribution systems in each country.

Similarly, it expanded sales in Oceania by carrying out aggressive marketing on its V energy drink and Maximus.

In the Americas, it worked on strengthening sales of its PepsiCo brands franchise in the State of North Carolina as well as growing the non-carbonated drinks category.

As a result of the different initiatives, net profit grew 22.53% to ¥20.2bn ($180.3m), from ¥16.5bn ($147.2m) in 2016.