INNIS & Gunn has broken through the £10 million turnover barrier for the first time as the Edinburgh-based beer firm enjoyed "exceptional" growth in the UK on and off-trades.

The company saw sales rise by 15 per cent to £10.5 million in the year to the end of December 2013, driven by a 30 per cent increase in volume sales.

The turnover leap was less pronounced than the 23 per cent hike recorded in 2012, which the craft beer producer put down to foreign exchange movements.

However founder and chief executive Dougal Sharp said the firm "continues to outperform all the published market metrics in our core markets".

He declined to give a profit figure for the year but said the firm was "satisified" that earnings "were in line with expectations".

The company turned in a strong performance in the UK, driven by the launch of new products such as Innis & Gunn Lager which served to lessen its reliance on overseas markets.

While exports accounted for 78 per cent of sales in 2012, the figure fell to 71 per cent for 2013.

Mr Sharp said the company was benefiting from the continued "surge in interest among drinkers for beer with real flavour and a story to tell", as well as major infrastructure investment.

During the year Innis & Gunn moved its entire canning and bottling operation to a single site, the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow and introduced lower weight 660ml and 330ml bottles.

Both measures are aimed at helping the company reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 2,000 metric tonnes over three year.

Mr Sharp said: "For the first time in many years this puts all our production in one site, which makes it a damn sight easier to control and manage.

"Over the last three, four years we have been working with the team at Wellpark, we have been building up a relationship [and] a better understanding of how best to work together.

"That relationship is really bearing fruit, and the fact it is 35, 40 miles away from our office in Edinburgh is a lot better and a lot more convenient than where we were previously bottling down in Bury St Edmonds."

Innis & Gunn also invested a "six figure" sum to design and develop a new system for maturing beer, with second generation Oakerators put into production in December.

Away from capital investment, the year saw Innis & Gunn bring a new lager and toasted oak IPA (India Pale Ale) to the market, complementing its core original and rum cask finish products.

Mr Sharp predicted the lager would eventually become its biggest seller in volume terms. The 4.6 per cent ABV lager, devised to offer a Scottish alternative to premium imported lagers, is now available in 250 outlets in Scotland in draught format.

Mr Sharp said: "We are in a lager drinking country, and our lager is appealing to premium lager drinkers.

"Really it is the first time that a Scottish beer company has produced a more fully flavoured premium lager to compete with the big continental imports."

He added: "We would never have been able to invest in the infrastructure to do lager in the way we have done had we not been patient and quietly built our US, our Canadian, our Swedish and our UK grocery business."

Last week Innis & Gunn announced it had signed a three-year deal to distribute English craft cider Thatchers Gold across the Atlantic.

The move, sparked by an "explosion" in craft cider sales in the US, has led the firm to take immediate steps to double staff to eight in North America. The hires will take the company's overall headcount to 45.