Guinness rival to market Black Russian

GUINNESS is to be made in St Petersburg, but rival drinks company Heineken will produce the stout.

Heineken, owners of Guinness’s biggest rival stout Murphy’s, has entered a deal with British firm Diageo, owners of the 246-year-old Guinness brand, to produce Guinness Foreign Extra Stout in the Russian city of St Petersburg. The Russian beer market is worth an estimated €5.4 billion per annum.

Heineken, based in Amsterdam, already has extensive stout brewing experience through its Lady’s Well Brewery in Cork where it produces Murphy’s Irish stout. Guinness closed down its extensive Park Royal brewery in London last year with the loss of 90 jobs transferring production of 1.2 million barrels of stout to Dublin.