Are These The Actual Options For Famous Guinness Dublin Brewery?

USUALLY IT’S A CASE of the public sampling Guinness, on a fairly regular basis it has to be said, but this evening I took part in a survey – completely by coincidence – where Guinness were sampling their customer base in advance of potentially huge changes for the ailing company.

Things have not been going well for Guinness in recent years. I used to work there, up until 2001, and even then market share was dropping with alarming regularity. Although overall share prices are on the up for Diageo – the parent company – the Guinness brand is in trouble. Drink driving legislation, take home trade market growth and more ‘fashionable and younger’ drinks are all taking their toll on the old diehard brand.

Guinness of course have attempted to fight back with clever marketing campaigns and adverts, with new products and options for the younger and more discerning drinker (Guinness Red anyone?… Meh!), hell they’ve even developed some “Surge” technology to enable the ‘perfect pint’,  but none of it seems to be making that much difference to the downward slide in performance.

Even when I was working there the rumours of the Brits closing down the St. James Gate brewery were always a regular topic of conversation at the lunch table, or indeed over a pint or two. Up to now it’s been speculation, but more recently this particular rumour seems to have gathered some speed and momentum. Back in June this year Diageo confirmed they were looking at options, but remained elusive on what those options actually were. 

The survey I completed online tonight kind of reinforces (for me anyway) the idea that the Diageo management team are serious about taking a long hard look at their options for the home of Guinness this time around, and in particular they seemed to have refined said options down to just a few fairly key ones.

So, what variations are they looking at then? Well, you might be surpsied to know that there are four distinct options on the menu – according to the survey anyway -as follows:- Read more