Despite dropping its sponsorship of the Queen's Club tennis tournament for the first time in 30 years this summer, sales of Stella surged by nearly 7% between April and June.

The launch of the lower-strength Stella Artois 4% and a renewed burst of creative humorous advertising for the traditional-strength Stella saw the overall brand gain market share, according to its owner the brewing giant Anheuser Busch InBev.

The world's largest brewer was created through the £32 billion takeover of Anheuser Busch by InBev last year after a protracted bid battle. Alongside Stella it brews Budweiser, Beck's and Skol.

Today it reported second-quarter profits ahead of analysts' forecasts and chief executive Carlos Brito said: “We have strong operating momentum going into the second half of 2009, but we recognise that many challenges remain. The beer industry, while resilient in most of our key markets, is not immune to economic pressures.”

The brewer's earnings rose 18% in the three months to June to $3.6 billion (£2.2 billion) on revenues 1.4% higher at $9.5 billion. That was despite beer volume sales dropping by 1.1%.

In the UK despite soaring Stella sales the brewer said its total sales had fallen by 3.4% in the second quarter as overall beer volumes continued to slide.

AB InBev said it had cut the costs of selling each pint of beer by almost 6% during the first half mainly through more efficient brewing. It expects costs during the second half to remain flat which is “somewhat more optimistic” than it had originally forecast.