Ireland: Diageo invests €25 million into Guinness brewery to ramp up non-alcoholic production

With an unrivalled perch looking out over the heart of Dublin city, a line of six shiny new tanks are standing to attention, towering twenty five metres high over the St James’s Gate Guinness Brewery, The Irish Times reported on July 3.

The more than 260-year-old Guinness brand is owned by global drinks giant Diageo, which has just invested €25 million in the tanks, as well as a new two-storey building, to meet rapidly growing demand for its non-alcoholic offering, Guinness 0.0.

Made in Burgstadt in Germany, shipped into Dublin Port and Garda escorted to the brewery, and with a total capacity of almost 90 million pints, Guinness said the new tanks will ramp up production of the alcohol free stout by 300 per cent.

While the exact process of making Guinness 0.0 is a closely guarded secret developed over four years, it involves a cold filtration system that extracts alcohol from the freshly brewed Guinness that has already made its way through the colossal labyrinth of silver tanks, kettles, and pipes at St James’s Gate.

The new Guinness 0.0 production facility has a total capacity of 500,000 hectolitres, and is a big expansion of production capacity since the non-alcoholic stout launched in the Irish market in mid 2021.

The investment is spurred by increasing demand from consumers for the 0.0 option, as Diageo forecasts that the non-alcoholic alternative will account for one in ten of all Guinness trademark sales in Ireland in the coming years.

O’Donoghue’s on Merrion Row in Dublin is one of Diageo’s top customers in Ireland for Guinness 0.0. Publican Oliver Barden said that it is one of the most popular non-alcoholic beers in the pub.

“It’s a great tasting alternative for those that want to experience the atmosphere and craic in the pub without any alcohol. I imagine this demand will continue to grow as the availability and quality of non-alcoholic products becomes more widespread,” he said.

In terms of off-the-shelf sales, Barry O’Sullivan, managing director of Diageo Ireland, noted that Guinness 0.0 is now the number one selling non-alcoholic beer in four-pack format in Ireland and the UK (as per Nielsen check out scanning data for 2023).

“This expansion in production capacity at St James’s Gate is a testament to the quality of Guinness 0.0 and the growth of the non-alcoholic category, as consumers look for more choice on different occasions,” he said.

The St James’s Gate facility is the home for all global Guinness 0.0 production, with the main export markets including the UK, Europe, the US, Canada, the Middle East and South Korea.

Interim results published by Diageo in January reported net sales of £9.4 billion (€10.9 billion) in the six months to December 31st 2022, with an operating profit of £3.2 billion.

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