Murphy's sales in UK surge 666% as 'demand for Irish stout keeps building'
Murphy’s Stout being served at the Faltering Fullback pub in Finsbury Park in London. The stout is now stocked in 1,550 UK pubs. Picture: David Parry/PA
Murphy’s Irish Stout is continuing to make huge inroads in the UK, with year-on-year value sales growth of 666% and a volume increase of 607%.
Parent company Heineken UK announced a price freeze for 2026 on the famed Cork stout on Tuesday, as the brewer looks to continue the triple-digit growth.
The UK is the world's largest market for stout, worth more than €1bn. Murphy's has rapidly expanded its presence in pubs in Britain, with more than 1,550 pubs now serving the stout on draught - a rise of 480%.
“Pubs are under sustained cost pressures yet demand for Irish stout keeps building," said Heineken UK on-trade director Will Rice. "Murphy’s 2026 price freeze is about backing pubs and giving them price certainty on a brand that is soaring in popularity.
Murphy’s Irish Stout has boomed this year. Last Christmas, in response to reports that pubs were running out of the black stuff, Murphy’s took to the streets of London in a van emblazoned with ‘Good Things Come To Those Who Are Waiting’, to hand deliver free kegs of Murphy’s to pubs in time for Christmas Eve. Heineken even launched a new 'Map O'Murphy's' last year, outlining all the places in the UK selling the Cork beverage.
The stout category renaissance has seen Murphy's surf a wave of success, mirroring the success of rival Diageo, where Guinness has become the star brand.
A surge in popularity among younger drinkers, amid a trend to 'split the G', has seen Guinness sales rocket in recent years. Last Christmas, massive consumer demand in Britain saw some pubs run out of the product, due to the "exceptional consumer demand". Heineken UK took advantage of Diageo's difficulties as it filled the stout gap for needy publicans.
The rise of Guinness in the UK shows no signs of stopping. Last week, Diageo opened the doors to a new Guinness attraction in London. The £73m (€83.4m) Guinness-themed site in the city’s Covent Garden district features a microbrewery, restaurants, a gift shop, and bars for people to sip the famed stout.
It’s the fourth such tourist attraction for Guinness, following the Storehouse attached to its St James’s Gate site in Dublin and microbreweries in Baltimore and Chicago.
Meanwhile in the US, Guinness continues to rise. Diageo said that in the second half of fiscal 25, it was the fastest growing major beer brand in the ontrade by volume,(1) and the number one draft beer in major metropolitan areas like Boston and New York.
In Ireland, Guinness is building a €200m carbon neutral brewery at Littleconnell near Newbridge in Kildare, brewing largers and ales as it frees up production at St James's Gate for increased Guinness output.
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