Diageo Opens New Kildare Brewery

Diageo opened the first phase of its new brewery in Kildare on May 11, marking a major step in a near EUR 1 billion investment in its Irish operations and a broader effort to expand production of Guinness and Guinness 0.0 as demand rises at home and abroad.

The new plant is on a greenfield site at Littleconnell, outside Newbridge, and represents an investment of almost EUR 300 million, according to the company. Diageo said that figure is about 50% higher than what it had planned when it first announced the expansion in 2022. Enterprise Ireland supported the project with EUR 7.5 million in green funding.

Construction of the brewery created about 650 jobs, and the site now has more than 50 permanent positions. At full current capacity, the brewery can produce 2 million hectoliters of beer, making it the second-largest brewery in Ireland after Diageo’s St James’s Gate facility in Dublin.

The first phase will shift production of Diageo’s ales and lagers, including Rockshore, Harp, Smithwick’s and Kilkenny, as well as licensed beers such as Carlsberg, from Dublin to Kildare for both the Irish market and export. The move is intended to free up space at St James’s Gate for more Guinness production.

Diageo has also secured permission for a second phase on the same 40-acre site, with an additional EUR 400 million planned for a separate brewery dedicated to Guinness and Guinness 0.0. The company said work on that phase is expected to begin this year as it responds to growing demand for those brands.

The investment is part of a larger program running from 2020 to 2029 that includes upgrades at St James’s Gate and at Diageo’s packaging site in Belfast. The company has already completed some of that work to increase capacity for Guinness 0.0 and said further investment will go toward reducing carbon emissions at St James’s Gate.