Guinness is set to get more space at its home brewery in Ireland, with Diageo lining up a new production facility around 50km away.
The new site, in the town of Newbridge in County Kildare, is the subject of a EUR200m (US$200.3m) investment, announced today. Once completed, the brewery will have an annual production capacity of 2m hectolitres that will be given over to brands including Rockshore, Harp, Hop House 12, Smithwick’s and Kilkenny.
The brands, along with Carlsberg which Diageo produces under licence in Ireland, are currently brewed at Diageo’s St James’s Gate facility in Dublin with the capacity freed up from their move to Kildare to be given over to Guinness “to meet global demand”.
Production in Newbridge will kick off in 2024, with Diageo claiming the new facility will be Ireland’s “first purpose-built carbon-neutral brewery”.
In 2008, the group prepared the closure of two breweries in Ireland while “pledging to build a major new factory on the outskirts of Dublin”. according to The Guardian at the time. The Dundalk and Kilkenny sites were subsequently shuttered – Cooley Irish whiskey founder John Teeling bought the former in 2013 – although the new factory proposal did not materialise.
Today’s announcement rounds off a lively week for Diageo, following the resurrection of its chief operating officer position and the agreement to offload its Guinness Cameroon business and brewery to Castel Group.
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