Urgent warning for Irish pub-goers as pint of Guinness is up by up to 50p TOMORROW

IRISH drinkers will have to spend up to 50 cents extra on a pint of Guinness when prices go up TOMORROW.

Diageo, the brewers of Ireland’s favorite drink, announced the surprise price increase earlier this month.

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The drinks giant is charging pubs an extra 12 cents a pint and forcing restaurateurs to raise prices by up to 50 cents just to keep their margins.

This comes after Heineken increased the price of its products by 17 cents a pint in December across all its products, including popular brands like Coors, Birra Moretti and Orchard Thieves.

The price increase for a pint of the black stuff comes on February 1st and comes before VAT is added.

In 2019, the average price for a pint of Guinness was €4.65.

After Diageo’s last move, we could see the price of a pint of Guinness go up to €6.80 in a regular pub.

However, this varies from pub to pub.

Diageo has claimed that “significant inflation in input costs at our operations” led to their recent increase.

They added: “We have borne these costs for as long as possible, but unfortunately we can no longer do so.”

Diageo’s total net sales in Ireland have increased by 20 percent in the last six months, according to the Irish Examiner.

Global sales increased by 18.4 percent to 10.7 billion euros in the six months to the end of December 2022.

By surveying 11 pubs across Dublin City, we found that pint prices will increase by an average of around 30 cents a pint.

This is mainly due to pub owners cutting margins to prevent cost increases from impacting the customer.

EXPECTED PUBLICANS

Some pubs have even bought casks of the popular porter in bulk, allowing them to keep their old prices a little longer.

Pub owners in the capital have accused Diageo of “sheer greed” and warned they may have to ditch the black stuff altogether.

Michael Ryan has been running the Ha’Penny Bridge Inn on the outskirts of Temple Bar since 1989, and he and his son Sean are reluctantly trying to add 30 cents to the price of their €6.30 pints.

Michael said: “People only have so much money these days and that needs to focus on your bills, your mortgage and your family. So if the price of a pint keeps skyrocketing, people will end up missing out.

LIVING

“Without tourists we would be in big trouble and if you put this place on wheels and took us to the suburbs I don’t know what I would do, I feel for that.”

Sean added, “At this point, everything got completely out of hand.

“And it’s not like Guinness hasn’t made money like us during the pandemic, they’ve been selling in off-licenses and supermarkets so I’m not sure I’m buying their excuses.

“And we’re the cheapest here, we sell a pint of Guinness for €6.30, walk two minutes and you pay €8 for a pint of lager.

“We don’t want to rob people, we just want to make a living, but it’s getting harder every day.

“When Heineken raised their prices, I would have had to raise the prices 57 cents just to keep the same margins, but I raised it 30 cents, so now I’m losing money.

“And it’s the same with Guinness, we don’t have a choice, we have to maintain our margins and that’s along with our electricity bill, which has more than doubled.”