ICE cream maker Richmond Foods said a new flavour of its popular Fab ice lolly helped increase its market share, despite this year's poor summer weather.

The manufacturer, which runs Europe's largest ice cream factory at Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, launched a Fab orange flavour this year, but also hailed the success of new Yorkie and Toffee Crisp bars as it unwrapped a 34 per cent rise in annual profits to £14m.

Richmond, which supplies Nestl products such as Smarties and KitKat, as well as its own brands, boosted its share of the take-home market as more people bought tubs of its ice cream from supermarkets.

The results were achieved in the face of a 12 per cent decline in the UK ice cream market during the year.

Richmond increased its market share by launching products and benefiting from a three-year capital expenditure programme that cut manufacturing costs.

It is the leader in the take-home market, with its share increasing to 33.7 per cent from 24.1 per cent two years ago.

During the year, Richmond acquired Oldfields, which supplies bulk ice cream to the retail and food service sectors, and De Roma.