GUINNESS has launched a cake and pie in a bid to venture out of the booze aisle.
It comes as the Diageo-owned stout has been enjoying a surge in popularity lately.
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The latest Guinness-branded items include a Guinness Gift Cake and a Slow-Cooked Steak & Guinness Pie, launched in collaboration with Finsbury Food Group and Higgidy, respectively.
The aim of the new food items is to boost “brand visibility” for Guinness outside the booze aisle, according to Declan Hassett, licensing manager at Diageo.
“The beer, wines and spirits aisle is one of the least walked in-store,” he said.
“And so creating that visibility for a brand like Guinness in other parts of the store was a key aim.”
The Higgidy Slow-Cooked Steak & Guinness Pie (rsp: €3.75/200g) features Red Tractor assured British beef in a Guinness, onion and herb gravy, wrapped in all-butter shortcrust pastry with a rosemary-sprinkled lid.
It’s set to hit shelves in Tesco and Sainsbury’s this month, as well as online at Ocado.
Meanwhile, the Finsbury Food Group-made Guinness Gift Cake (rsp: €6/218g) is a chocolate cake with caramel filling and cocoa-dusted frosting – designed to show off Guinness’ “chocolate, coffee notes”, according to Hassett.
It’s already being sold in Tesco and Asda stores.
Guinness’ first foray into branded food came over 15 years ago with the Guinness Marmite.
The stout’s renewed popularity has “given more impetus” to recent collaborations, Hassett said.
“The success of Guinness has definitely made it easier,” he said. “More brands want to work with us now, but hopefully we pay back to the brand by making it even more relevant and more interesting to consumers.”
Future branded products could “push the boundaries” by moving into less obviously themed products, Hassett added.
“Guinness is such an international beer, we know that works so well with different types of food,” he said.
“So, we definitely want to step into a little bit more adventurous spaces.”
According to this year’s Britain’s Biggest Alcohol Brand report, Guinness was worth €240.4m – after it has grown its value by a whopping 155 per cent in the past decade.
The new Guinness microbrewery is set to open in Covent Garden in the run-up to Christmas, next to the iconic Stanford’s bookshop.
Plans for the brewery was first announced in 2022 – however, since then, Guinness has spiked in demand, with some pubs in London resorting to handing out ration cards for the drink.
Officially called The Open Gate Brewery, the 50,000-square-foot venue has cost £73million to build.
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