Diageo opens first phase of new EUR 700 million Kildare brewery

Ireland | Guinness parent Diageo officially opened its new Kildare brewery on 11 May as part of a near EUR 1 billion investment in its Irish operations. Diageo said the new brewery on a greenfield site at Littleconnell, outside Newbridge, represents an investment of almost EUR 300 million (USD 350 million) - 50 percent more than planned when the expansion was first announced in 2022.

The project, supported by Enterprise Ireland with EUR 7.5 million (USD 8.8 million) in green funding, created approximately 650 jobs during construction and more than 50 permanent roles.

Diageo will now move production of all its ales and lagers – Rockshore, Harp, Smithwick’s and Kilkenny, alongside licensed beers such as Carlsberg – for both Irish and international markets from its St James’s Gate in Dublin to Kildare.

At current capacity, the plant will be able to produce 2 million hl beer, making it the second-largest brewery in Ireland after Diageo’s St James’s Gate.

The plan originally envisaged to free up space at the Dublin brewery to expand production of Guinness there. However, Diageo has since secured permission for a further EUR 400 million investment to build a second brewery, known as Brewery 2, on the 40-acre Kildare site, dedicated to the production of Guinness and Guinness 0.0 amid rising demand for those beers. Work on that phase of the site is expected to begin this year.

As part of the near EUR 1 billion (USD 1.16 billion) investment between 2020 and 2029, Diageo has already completed work at St James’s Gate and its Belfast packaging site to increase capacity and support the growth of Guinness 0.0. Further work is planned to support the decarbonisation of St James’s Gate.