A friend of the family was a master brewer in guinness until about 4 years ago. he joined as a kid and worked his way up. when Diagio came on board the place changed and they started not giving a shite about employees and wondering why the hell they bought this brewery that was losing money and drinkers. he called it the black pearl in the Diagio necklace. he left because of the squeeze they put on the employees...virtually letting most of the staff go. Guinnes wasnt a family business anymore. the feel good factor was gone. at the end of the day they wanted profits and they are gonna try everything to get them. thay have no sentiment. no loyalty to customers. they spend foolish amounts on ad campaigns. is this the guiness of Dublin.....or a massive company with no face?...well he left and his son left soon after and it was fairly common knowledge that the company had bought a big plot in Balbriggan and were gonna sell in the next ten years or less.Balbriggan is still in Dublin so they would not lose the county name.....not that it would really affect peoples choice at the bar...as the price hikes have shown over the last 5 years....it used to cost me 2.05 in the army mess for a pint in 2002. its about 2.50-2.55 now. thats with little to no profit. will raising prices help profits? doubt it . i stopped drinking it and much prefere the change from my Beamish.
if Guinness was a family business based in the heart of Dublin, producing a consistant quality pint ( actually thats unfair as all guiness in the factory is as good as it gets....they have lads who drink it for a living...in the kegging plant every half hour) maybe we would feel they are betraying us but its a faceless multinational thats doesnt really give a shite about us or anything else bar profit and share prices.
