Stout-Hearted Island

Irishmen drink the rich, dark brew known as Guinness Stout pretty much as a patriotic duty. Of all the stout consumed in the country, 75% is produced by 206-year-old Arthur Guinness Son & Co., which has grown so large that it is a keystone of the Irish economy. Guinness employs 4,300 people, more than anyone else except the government. Indirectly, it supports 26,000 employees of 14,500 pubs--and 16,000 Irish farmers depend on Guinness to buy 100,000 tons of barley annually. The company pays $23 million yearly in excise taxes, has lent the government money to build peat-briquette factories, contributes to both University and Trinity colleges. At that rate, any Irish "pintman" who doesn't drink all the Guinness pints he can is practically traitorous.

Candy & Drugs. Guinness can be grateful for the fact that the Irish have indeed been doing their duty. Making his annual report this week, Arthur Francis Benjamin Guinness, Viscount Elveden, 28, the sixth Guinness to run the company, was able to announce a $15.5 million profit, nearly double Guinness' earnings ten years ago. Other nations, in addition, are picking up the Irish sense of obligation. Guinness and the company's newer Harp Lager are now marketed the world over; more than $20 million worth is exported annually. Between exports and Guinness brewed in three overseas plants, 5,000,000 pints a day are downed globally. Africans consider Guinness a potent aphrodisiac, something that has never frightened the Irish.

In spite of higher sales, pre-tax profits are down 7% from last year, largely because of the increased taxes being levied abroad. In Britain, the company's best export market, served by a fleet of Guinness ships plying the Irish Sea, surtaxes are costing Guinness $1,400,000 a year. To balance such expenses, Guinness is diversifying considerably. The company now owns several British candy firms, along with 200 candy stores that cater to the below-the-beer-age market. It also controls two pharmaceutical firms in Ireland and a land-development company.

Silver Tankard. Guinness' principal product, however, will always continue to be beers brewed pretty much as they have been for two centuries. In 1759, looking for a place to invest a -L-100 inheritance, Arthur Guinness leased a bankrupt brewery beside the Liffey River; the St. James's Gate plant is still the company's principal operation, has grown into a 63-acre sprawl that is one of the world's largest breweries. The chairman's job and brewing secrets have since passed regularly from father to son except in one case. Viscount Elveden's father was killed in World War II, and today's incumbent took over at 24 from an aging grandfather. Although Guinness became a public company in 1886, it is still family-controlled. Along with Eton-and Cambridge-educated Elveden, eight other Guinnesses sit on the board. Like the rest of Ireland, Guinness people do their duty by the company. Workers are allowed two free pints of stout each day. At board meetings, by long tradition, a silver tankard of Guinness stout is set in front of each director.

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