Diageo Ireland To Build New EUR650M State-Of-The-Art Brewery

Diageo Ireland is today announcing that it has entered into agreements to acquire a 73-acre greenfield site in Leixlip, Co. Kildare with the intention to build a new state-of-the art brewery. The proposed site has important historical links to Arthur Guinness and his first brewery. This development represents the next stage of the Euro 650million capital investment in its brewing operations in Ireland announced by Diageo plc in May 2008.

It is anticipated that the new brewery will be completed by 2013 and will be called the ‘Arthur Guinness Brewery’. Once commissioned, the new brewery - in conjunction with the remodelled St. James’s Gate brewery - will transform Diageo Ireland’s current brewing operations into a two-brewery centre of excellence to support the growth and development of its domestic and global beer business.

In addition to being the optimum location for the new brewery’s operational requirements, the site has important historical and heritage links to Guinness. Arthur Guinness established his first brewery in Leixlip in 1755 before moving to St. James’s Gate in 1759. Most of the proposed site (c.50 acres) will be purchased from the Guinness family, direct descendents of Arthur Guinness.