Diageo selling beer brands.

clivej

Diageo is looking to sell beer brands including Smithwick's, Kilkenny and Harp Lager, based in Ireland

irish_goat

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/spirits-giant-diageo-seeking-to-sell-some-irish-beer-brands-including-smithwicks-reports/a1556299106.html

Surprising news given their plans to build their new brewery in Kildare. Can't be planning just to use that for Rockshore.

Justin10

Very surprising, 3 brands with a bit of promotion could see huge growth.

Never liked harp but it was very popular.

Smitwicks and especially Kilkenny are lovely.

squonk

Haven’t seen Kilkenny in a while but Smithwicks is my staple on a night out. Apart from Guinness I’d put those as being the only authentic stuff there have. I know Kilkenny is kind of invented but it is arid 30 years now. The rest of the Diageo beer repertoire is just trendy shíte. Hop House is grand but if she stuck to Smithwicks unless proper craft beer was available

BeerNut

I'm guessing the new brewery will be part of the package and will make it much easier to sell.

irish_goat

"its beer brands were a margin drag on the rest of the business"

I wonder if they'll eventually sell Guinness too. Presumably the above sentence also applies to it. Would be unusual for a large brewery to only have 1(2?) brands as well.

Or maybe they'll wail until the St.Jame's Gate land becomes a little more valuable...

blackbox

Diageo is a multinational focused on international brands.

It is not unusual for them to sell off "local" brands. They see Guinness as a global brand and that is where they will spend their marketing budget.

emo72

If they were thinking long term they would have all manufacturing away from James Street. That's more valuable as real estate now.

clivej

They also brew Budwiser under licence. That was the number 1 lager but not anymore.

irish_goat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121460588#Comment_121460588

Not anymore. They started making Rockshore to replace it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121460563#Comment_121460563

In this day and age having 1 brand doesn't do them any favours when up against Heineken, C&C etc though. They've been coasting as the goliath of the stout market for a long time but I don't see that lasting either.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121460588#Comment_121460588

It went to c&c which has been part of its precipitous demise

alias no.9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121460572#Comment_121460572

They built a large new factory on the site a little over 10 years ago, when they consolidated Smithwicks and Harp operations into St James's Gate, you can see the grey clad building near the quays. It had originally been supposed to be built in Leixlip and land at St James's Gate freed up for development. Now we're back to a greenfield brewery in Kildare and getting Smithwicks and Harp out of St James's Gate.

Geuze

"its beer brands were a margin drag on the rest of the business"

Given the high selling prices in Ireland, this is hard to believe.

Of course, they earn less margin selling these beers abroad, where there is more competition.

artanevilla

How much is the Irish market worth in the grand scheme of things?

loyatemu

presumably they're holding onto McArdles for the massive profits it generates?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121461167#Comment_121461167

They appear to be selling absolutely everything that doesn't have Guinness in the name..

The Carlsberg licence will be an issue as they (Carlsberg) won't want it going to a rival. Guinness got it in the first place as they refused to have Carling near it when Elders IXL bought Beamish.

They are a potential purchaser of the lot of course.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121461212#Comment_121461212

do people actually drink Carlsberg? i though it went out of fashion with Budweiser.

Black Sheep

*Conor McGregor has entered the chat*

...Joking, I presume his pockets aren't deep enough to acquire one of these.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121461245#Comment_121461245

More than drink Budweiser these days. Still semi widely available on tap and very available in off-sales

loyatemu

yeah there's always supermarket deals on Carlsberg cans (in as much as anything can be described as a "deal" post-MUP).

In pubs they've been serving it in fancy stemmed glasses; they were plugging some sort of "unfiltered" version a while back, not sure if that's still around. Carlsberg is fine, inoffensive. I think it has a bit more flavour than Rockshore but I'd have to compare them to be sure, which I'm not going to do...

SodiumCooled

I would have thought Carlsberg would be one of the top selling beers in the country no? Guinness and probably Heineken ahead of it I’d have thought. It’s very popular in pubs around my way but that’s probably helped by the fact a few pubs don’t sell Heineken so carlsberg would be second only to Guinness but the main larger sold.

irish_goat

Fairly sure Heineken is the best selling beer overall, then Guinness. Would guess that Rockshore and Coors Light would be above Carlsberg too.

Geuze

Here is some info, but no brand data:

SodiumCooled

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121463192#Comment_121463192

Interesting, from my own experience I would see virtually no one drinking Rockshore I didn't think it was making any inroads into the market but again maybe its depended on location e.g. its drank much more in Dublin rather than down south.

Heineken's popularity always puzzles me a lot - to me its one of the worst lagers and I'd put say Carlsberg way ahead of it but it seems to be liked by so many.

Black Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465911#Comment_121465911

I was going to say the same about Carlsberg, relative to Heineken... Of the two I would opt for Carlsberg, personally. But I wouldn't feel strongly about it.

irish_goat

I'd rarely drink either these days but I probably have a more negative perception of Carlsberg as it reminds me of teenage friends drinking warm cans of it outside and I was never really able to get a taste for it. Heineken on the other hand was something I always drank cold and on draught.

lintdrummer

Kilkenny is a great beer. A bit of marketing would do wonders for it. You don't see it many places on draught or in a can. I was in the local Lidl yesterday (in Kilkenny) and they had all the big brands, including Smithwicks, but no Kilkenny.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121466240#Comment_121466240

what is the difference between Kilkenny and Smithwicks - isn't Kilkenny just the nitrogenated version of the latter?

squonk

Is it? I haven’t had it in years and you don’t see it anymore but speaking from memory, my impression was that Kilkenny was really smooth and just very drinkable whereas Smithwicks is a bit more robust as you’re driving.

JPup

Kilkenny is quite different to Smithwicks. Kilkenny settles like a Guinness and has a thick head.

Considering people here will argue over a preference between Carlberg and Heineken or Murphys and Guinness, which I don't think I could reliably tell apart in a blind taste test, there is a much bigger difference between Smithwicks and Kilkenny.

SodiumCooled

Kilkenny is a very nice beer, I don't think Ive ever had it on draft really as its more of an export beer from my understanding. I would be a Guinness drinker primarily with Smithwicks as a fall back but I think Kilkenny is probably nicer as is smoother. It also really works well in cans, seems to work better than Guinness from a can to campare it with another nitro beer.

I must keep an eye out for a few cans for over the christmas actually.