Guinness Nigeria Plc reports it now produces Baileys Irish Cream in Nigeria. The company made this revelation in its Investor conference call following the announcement of its results. 

Diageo owns about 58% of Guinness Nigeria Plc. The company claimed Nigeria is the first country that has produce Baileys outside of Ireland. Nigeria was also the first country outside Ireland where it produced its Foreign Extra Stout.  

Speaking on the company’s milestone, Ayodele Alabi, Corporate Communications Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc, said, “this has gone well. It’s a variant of the international syndicate that you all know, it’s gone really well. We’re still in a few places, we’re continuing to build our growth consumer, but the consumer and customer response so far has been very good.” 

READ MORE: Guinness Plc launches new PET bottles, unveils new production plant

Recall that some months ago, Guinness Nigeria Plc grew its product portfolio in the highly competitive market space, by launching ‘Baileys Delight’, a new product to alcoholic beverage.  

The beverage producer described the new product as “a light and lush cream liquor which blends the luscious taste of African honey with real dairy cream, from the makers of Baileys Original Irish cream.” 

What you should know: The Baileys Delight was launched in three different categories –75cl, 187.5cl, and the sachet pack. While the 75cl is in a breakable bottle, the 187.5cl is in a re-useable handy pet. 

Baileys Delight’s looks of light brownish golden cream mixed with 13% alcohol make the taste smooth and it comes in African Honey, Butter, and Vanilla flavours. 

Struggles remain: Guinness still continues to face significant challenges amidst competition from Nigeria Breweries and International Breweries. The company, for example, reported that sales of its Harp Larger beer fell by “double digits” during the year. It, however, claimed its new Guinness Gold beer is performing well. According to the company CEO 

“Talking a little bit about the beer market, we continue to see a decline in the market both in volume and value throughout the year. 

This doesn’t sound good for shareholders who are looking for a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of the company.  

Interestingly, Guinness also claims it sells more of cans and PET bottles compared to bottles even though margins are lower.  

“Bottle format in returnable glass tends to be a higher margin in our business and in the total business actually in the categories in which we operate. We saw that overall non-returnable glass [SKUs] like PET and cans grow much faster than the returnable glass format and as you know from various conversations we’ve had cans and PET tend to attract a much lower growth margin than we have in the returnable glass. So that was another pressure point that we saw coming through in the year. Of course the categories especially for non-alcoholic brands like Malta.” 

READ ALSO: Guinness Plc gives reasons for its declining beer sales volume

Company overview: Guinness Nigeria started production in the capital of the country’s commercial hub, Ikeja, Lagos since 1963 with additional brewery plants in Benin City and Aba. The brewery was the first Guinness operation outside Ireland and Great Britain. 

Guinness products were first sold in Nigeria between the 1940s and 1950s by United Africa Company (UAC) and the country subsequently became an important export market for the firm.