The star performer in a busy week for financial results was Pepsi bottler Britvic. Its shares rocketed 7.8% on Wednesday after the soft drinks company had good news to report on a number of fronts. Half-year profit before tax climbed 21%, ahead of analyst expectations, and management revealed it had secured nationwide distribution for the Fruit Shoot brand in the US.

“The company is making good progress in delivering cost savings, reducing net debt and expanding the distribution of its Fruit Shoot business in the US,” said Panmure analyst Damian McNeela. Its shares have jumped from a low of 260.7p after the Fruit Shoot recall in 2012, to 749p this week. Investors have welcomed a new strategic direction, which includes a plan to deliver £30m of annual cost savings by 2016.

Greencore shares also had a good week after it reported half-year like-for-like sales growth of 9.3% and a 14.9% increase in operating profit on Tuesday. Having fallen earlier in the year over concerns about the potential implications of a supermarket price war, its shares climbed 12.5% to 278p in the two days after the results.

On the same day, Marks & Spencer reported its full-year results. Although its food business continues to perform strongly, the high-street retailer delivered a third successive drop in profits, with underlying profit before tax down 3.9% to £623m.

The result was slightly better than analysts had expected, but shares slipped 1% to 446p over fears of teething problems with its relaunched website.

“We expected firmer indications on capital repatriation, a better general merchandise gross margin recovery than now indicated and we note the comments on online “settling” in the early year,” said Espirito Santo analyst Tony Shiret.

Former M&S director Charles Wilson had a better week. The Booker CEO reported a 25% increase in the wholesaler’s annual pre-tax profit to £118.7m and revealed that Makro was now back in profit. When it acquired Makro in April last year, the C&C wholesaler had just reported losses of £18m. Investec said it was a “strong set of results”.

In other results this week, Dairy Crest reported a 31% increase in adjusted profit before tax - broadly in line with analyst expectations - and Cranswick overcame record high pig prices to report a 6% increase in annual pre-tax profits.