Sales of the Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday, previously known as Ireland on Sunday, have been "very encouraging", the Daily Mail group claimed yesterday.

In September, Ireland on Sunday was rebranded and relaunched as the Irish Mail on Sunday.

Announcing its results for the year ended October 1st, 2006, the Daily Mail group was upbeat about the performance of the new title, although no specific figures were given.

Pretax profits at the Daily Mail group were up 9 per cent at £260 million (€384 million) during the period. The company now has several Irish assets, owned through its subsidiary Associated Newspapers Ireland.

As well as a third share in the Metro freesheet, it owns Buy & Sell magazine.

"The Mail on Sunday circulation was down 1.7 per cent in an overall market that fell by 4.5 per cent. A new Irish edition was launched on September 24th, incorporating Ireland on Sunday, and circulation figures have been very encouraging," said a company statement.

The last set of circulation figures put the average weekly sale of Ireland on Sunday at more than 120,000 copies.

The company will be hoping to significantly improve on this figure following the decision to rebrand the paper.

The statement added that the group's trade-related divisions generally enjoyed strong growth, while its consumer operations, particularly its newspapers, performed creditably under difficult trading conditions.