Guinness opening €83m London brewery venue this week
By Henry Saker-Clark, Press Association Deputy Business Editor
Guinness is to open its latest brewery in London later this week after a £73 million (€83.64 million) investment.
The popular stout brand said it will make four permanent beers from the site in Covent Garden, but said this will not include the famous “black stuff”, which will still only be made in Dublin.
It is the latest move by owner Diageo to capitalise on the soaring popularity of the brand in recent years, which has seen social media trends and marketing investment help it bring in more young customers.
Nevertheless, bosses indicated that they believe there is still room to grow Guinness in the UK and in London.
Barry O’Sullivan, managing director of Diageo Great Britain, told the Press Association: “I think there’s still significant upside growth opportunity for us.
“For example, in sport, the highest market shares you see for Guinness in this market is around the timing of the Six Nations.
“Now we are only just getting started on that journey with the Premier League and opens us up to a sport which takes place for the best part of 40 weeks rather than something condensed into a couple months.”
He added that the brand sees more opportunity to grow in the summer and through its 00 non-alcoholic version.
The company will launch the new Open Gate Brewery site on Thursday, December 11th.
The 54,000sqft venue will run guided tours, tastings and offers two restaurants.
Diageo said the site, which is the fifth Guinness brewery location after two in Dublin and two in the US, will create 250 new jobs.
It said is expects to welcome more than half a million visitors to the new site in its first year.
Grainne Wafer, global director for beer, liqueur and vodka, said the new venue took “at least six years” to come to fruition following the initial idea for the site.
She added: “Selecting London as a location was an obvious choice as Great Britain is our biggest market for Guinness.
“A lot of our visitors to the Guinness Storehouse also come from the UK so there are natural synergies there.”
