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History
In 1759, Arthur Guinness, funded by $150 from his godfather’s will, signed a 9,000-year lease for the now famous St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. The lease was originally at a rent of $70 per year and included a copper, a kieve, a mill, two malt houses, stables for 12 horses, and a loft for 200 tons of hay. Talk about rent stabilization: the brewery’s rent is still $70 per year.
At the time, Ireland was the home of 200 breweries, 10 of them located on St. James’s Street alone. The four-acre site was initially attractive for its proximity to a pure and guaranteed water supply.
The brewery originally produced ale. In the 1770s a new drink emerged that was popular with the market porters at Covent Garden in London. Arthur Guinness made a bold and defining decision to compete against the London brewers to produce this new beer, known as “porter.” The GUINNESS® brewing process used roasted barley, which gave the porter its dark-amber, nearly black color and strong taste. This style of porter beer became known as “stout.”
Under the guidance of Arthur’s three sons, GUINNESS® expanded into foreign markets, and within 100 years the GUINNESS® brewery was the largest in Ireland. In 1886, GUINNESS® became the first brewery to be traded on the London Stock Exchange. Before the end of the century, GUINNESS® had made its way to America.
By 1930, a total of 13,940 people (excluding wives, families, or other dependents) relied on the brewery for their income. Or put another way, about one out of every ten Dublin men looked to it for their livelihood either directly or indirectly. After World War II, the company established various export companies to manage overseas distribution. In the United States, The Guinness-Harp Corporation was created in 1964, which in 1985 would become Guinness Import Company.
The company focused on innovative technology in the 1980s, making it possible for consumers to enjoy GUINNESS® draught in cans and, most recently, in bottles. The company’s merger with consumer goods giant Grand Metropolitan in December 1997 created Diageo. In July 2000, Diageo announced a strategic realignment behind premium drinks leading to the sale of holdings such as Burger King and Pillsbury and acquisition of the Seagram’s spirits and wine business.
In April 2004, Diageo announced that it would transfer brewing of GUINNESS® in the United Kingdom to the St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin. The move will result in the closure of the Park Royal brewery in West London and require St. James’s Gate brewery to expand production from 8 million to 12 million kegs annually. |
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