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There's a brief article in the current issue of [i:297oa1ku]The Phoenix[/i:297oa1ku] about Diageo, talking about how they began by shedding all their non-drink operations and have since been consolidating even further to concentrate on their seven big international brands, all of which are spirits and liquers except for Guinness. The article suggests that they've only clung on to the brewing operations out of sentiment.

It doesn't mention anything about the possible move out of St. James's Gate, but if that does go ahead it'll be an indicator of just how much sentiment is worth around the Diageo boardroom table.

I think it would be quite a clever play to move Guinness operations to Balbriggan, capitalise on the James's Gate real estate, and then ditch the brand altogether to concentrate on Smirnoff, Bailey's and the other real money-spinners they churn out at Nangor Road.

InBev might be interested in Guinness, or there could be a management buy-out, though running the multi-faceted global Guinness brand would be a tough job for an independent.

Would anyone notice if Guinness ceased being owned by the company which evolved from Guinness United Distillers and Vintners, formerly Arthur Guinness & Sons Ltd.?

Maybe we could put in an offer. I mean, if Diageo are desperate, like...

Guinness has a big African market. The distribution system that that has built up would be very valuable if Africa's economic growth comes up to speed.
They currently produce clean water (Guinness/malt drinks) for Africa. How much would supplying clean water to Africa be worth if they dropped the pretense of adding malt to it? This would require Africa to grow at similar rates to India for a few years to be viable.

"a_friend_in_mead":1ccjt4rt wrote: Guinness has a big African market. The distribution system that that has built up would be very valuable if Africa's economic growth comes up to speed.[/quote:1ccjt4rt]There's no doubt that Guinness, globally, is a valuable commodity. It's just that it doesn't seem to me to be the kind of entity that Diageo want to run.

Failing Hendrixcat's suggestion (which would mean getting a volunteer to run the non-alcoholic side of the business) we could always lobby to have the company nationalised <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->