Diageo has announced that it will pump €650 million into the Guinness brand to update the brewery at St. James’s Gate and set up a new brewing facility close to Dublin. With any extra land that may result from shifting the locations of other facilities around, they might be going into the real estate business. What could be more appealing than to set up, say, a restaurant, right next to one of the most tourist-drawing establishments in all of Ireland?
The BBC article cites Diageo claiming that “increasingly competitive market conditions” are a reason for this move, and it seems that some breweries are consolidating, perhaps for the better. And I’m not talking malt and hop prices, either. I’m wondering if the economy as a whole is affecting the long-term outlook of these companies, not solely the price of raw materials. Not to mention the constant shapeshifting from mergers, buyouts, and the like. Because it’s one thing if a small microbrewing outfit is concerned for the time being, but it’s another thing altogether when huge international brands under Diageo are showing trepidation.
Anyway, I know this isn’t groundbreaking news, but I figured The Beer Nut would want to know since I’m sure he’s been dying to find a place he can get an ice-cold Harp.
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May 20, 2008 at 9:18 am
The Beer Nut
Your Harp jibes cannot harm me: I was raised on the stuff and am therefore immune.
The Harp brewery in Dundalk is one of the two that Diageo have announced they are closing as part of this consolidation exercise, incidentally.
I’m glad Diageo will be returning some of Dublin’s streets to its citizens, and even more glad, as a cyclist, that their trucks will no longer be barrelling up and down the Liffey quays between the brewery and the port.