DIAGEO, the drinks giant, yesterday called time on almost 70 years of Guinness brewing in the UK and will move production of the famous black stout back to its main plant in Dublin.
The decision, which will result in the closure of the Park Royal brewery in London in 2005, is bad news for the 90 workers who will be made redundant, but good news for puritans who insist that Guinness produced on the Emerald Isle is a superior brew.
A company spokeswoman said that no relocation deal was available for the workers, although more than 1000 staff employed in sales and marketing for Diageo at the London site will stay.
UK drinkers who are partial to thick dark beer with a creamy white head will instead get their tipple from the company's historic St James's Gate brewery in the Irish capital, which makes around eight million kegs of Guinness a year compared with about four million produced in London.
Gerry O'Hagan, supply director for Diageo's brewing business, said: ''A major review of our brewing business in the UK and Ireland has shown very clearly that the best option for the future would be to consolidate our production for the Great Britain market into Ireland.
He added: ''With some additional investment in technology, St James's Gate could absorb the four million equivalent kegs produced at Park Royal.''
The group said it will invest around (pounds) 150m in marketing the brand this year, and a further (pounds) 15m will be invested at St James's Gate to boost capacity.
The Park Royal site - the first Guinness brewery to be opened outside of Ireland - began brewing in 1936 after sales outstripped production at St James's Gate amid rising UK demand. The London brewery currently supplies all draught Guinness beer for UK pubs.
Guinness, which owes its dark colour to the use of roasted barley, is brewed in more than 50 countries world-wide. It is the UK's fifth-best-selling beer behind Carling, Fosters, Stella Artois, and Carlsberg with a market share of around 4%.
The UK is the main market for Guinness, followed by Ireland and Nigeria.
The drink traces its roots back to 1759 when Arthur Guinness bought a mothballed brewery in Dublin. In the 1770s, he tasted a new drink popular with market porters in London, which was being exported to Dublin, and decided to take on the English brewers.
When asked if the quality
of UK Guinness was now
likely to improve, since its base ingredient will now be water from Dublin's famous River Liffey - which many Guinness enthusiasts believe is key to the Irish version's supposed superiority - a Diageo spokeswoman sighed. ''Oh, God, everyone wants to know this,'' she said.
''Our view is that taste is a matter of one's own perspective. Some people have even said that British-brewed Guinness tastes better.''
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