{"id":479464,"date":"2026-05-11T16:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/479464\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:58:13","slug":"diageo-opens-first-phase-of-new-e700m-kildare-brewery-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/479464\/","title":{"rendered":"Diageo opens first phase of new \u20ac700m Kildare brewery \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guinness <\/a>parent Diageo<\/a> officially opens its new Kildare brewery on Monday as part of a near \u20ac1 billion investment in its Irish operations.<\/p>\n

The drinks giant says the new brewery on a greenfield site at Littleconnell, outside Newbridge, represents an investment of almost \u20ac300 million, 50 per cent more than planned when the expansion was first announced in 2022.<\/p>\n

Diageo is moving production of all its ales and lagers \u2013 Rockshore, Harp, Smithwick\u2019s and Kilkenny, alongside licensed beers such as Carlsberg \u2013 for both Irish and international markets from its St James\u2019s Gate site in the centre of Dublin in a move the company says strengthens Ireland\u2019s role within Diageo\u2019s global brewing network.<\/p>\n

At capacity, it will be able to produce two million hectolitres making it the second largest brewing operation in Ireland after Diageo\u2019s operation at St James\u2019s Gate.<\/p>\n

The plan was originally envisaged to free up space at the city centre brewery to expand production of Guinness there. However, Diageo has since secured permission for a further \u20ac400 million investment to build a second brewery on the 40-acre Kildare site dedicated to the production of Guinness and Guinness 0.0 amid rising demand for those beers. <\/p>\n

Work on that phase of the site is expected to begin this year.<\/p>\n

As part of the near \u20ac1 billion investment between 2020 and 2029, Diageo has already completed work at St James\u2019s Gate and its Belfast packaging site to increase capacity and support the growth of Guinness 0.0, and further work is planned to support the decarbonisation of St James\u2019s Gate.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> officially opened the brewery which, Diageo says, will employ 50 people and incorporates advanced brewing and process technologies to reduce energy and water use. It will be powered entirely by renewable energy.<\/p>\n

He said the opening of the brewery was \u201ca powerful vote of confidence in Ireland and in our future as a world\u2011leading, sustainable food and drink exporter … underlining the central role Ireland plays within the company\u2019s global brewing network\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy choosing to invest at this scale in Ireland and to lead the way in next\u2011generation, low\u2011carbon brewing, Diageo is supporting skilled jobs, regional development and export growth, while helping Ireland advance its climate ambitions through innovation,\u201d the Taoiseach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for Guinness and Guinness 0.0. is surging,\u201d Diageo chief executive Sir Dave Lewis, said. \u201cToday Diageo is proud to unveil our new state of the art brewery at Littleconnell, part of our \u20ac1 billion investment in Ireland. How fitting that it\u2019s in county Kildare, the birthplace of Arthur Guinness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin O\u2019Brien, who manages global beer supply at Diageo, said the Littleconnell site was central to enabling future growth in Guinness exports. <\/p>\n

Jenny Melia, CEO of Enterprise Ireland<\/a>, which supported the development financially, said the new brewery was a \u201dfantastic endorsement of our skills and capabilities in this sector, and will drive export growth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnterprise Ireland is proud to support Diageo\u2019s investment in this lighthouse project as this innovative brewery sets a new standard for industry globally, in the use of new technologies which will reduce energy and water use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guinness parent Diageo officially opens its new Kildare brewery on Monday as part of a near \u20ac1 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,36325,18,12586,11545,19,17,5765],"class_list":["post-479464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-diageo","tag-eire","tag-enterprise-ireland","tag-guinness","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}