The proposed move wasn't based on the considerations of the brewing process. It was to do with the fact that St. James Gate was a very valuable piece of real estate.
There's no doubt it's still a valuable piece of land but not nearly as much as the silly money that was being talked about even less than a year ago. I said at the time, Diageo had a look at the sums, figured that selling St. James Gate less the cost of fancy new brewery in the sticks equalled a big pile of money in the bank.
This announcement is just means they've had a look at the sums again and have figured out that with no more frenzied land buying going on, the big pile of money in the bank scenario isn't going to happen. Hence the move being reconsidered.
