Murphy's Irish Stout outgrows
Exports grow in importance
36 Opposite the brewery lies a hill. Atop that hill stands
a small building which contains the source of the
bady's Well. For centuries the well has been a meet
ing place for the faithful. In May each year many
people make a pilgrimage to the well in Cork in the
South of Ireland.
In 1856 the four Murphy brothers
started a brewery in what was
formerly a hospital. For James,
William, Jerome and Frances the
roomy premises, set out in a square
pattern, offered the ideal site for a
brewery. It was named The Lady's
Well Brewery.
Ever since the eighteenth century
Cork has been an excellent location
to brew beer in. The best barley from
the fertile soils of Southern Ireland,
combined with the excellent quality
of the local water, gave the Murphy
brothers the chance to develop a
creamy and mild-tasting stout:
Murphy's Irish Stout.
Turning point
For many decades the black beer
was mainly a popular drink in Cork
and surrounding areas. In the rest of
Ireland pub-goers had hardly heard
of the Cork-brewed stout.
The turning point came in 1983
when The Lady's Well Brewery was
taken over by Heineken. Eight years
before that Heineken beer had
already been brewed under licence
in the Cork brewery, but since the
takeover a great deal has changed
for both the personnel and the
brewery. A substantial capital expen
diture programme ensured that
within the space of a few years the
outdated brewery underwent a com
plete metamorphosis, with the result
that it can today describe itself as
Ireland's most modern brewery.
Facelift
But major investments were not
confined solely to the brewing tech
nology. Murphy's Irish Stout, as a
new brand in the Heineken portfolio,
was given the attention it deserved
and a new marketing approach was
developed. The product's design was
given a facelift and brought into line
with its unique position.
Murphy's Irish Stout had to
expand from a local product to
become a national, possibly an inter
national brand. Gradually, as it
advanced towards the Irish capital of
Dublin, the black brew started to out
grow its local character. The time
had come to look at possibilities out
side the Emerald Isle.
Whitbread
The first country outside Ireland
where Murphy's Irish Stout gained a
solid foothold was the United King
dom. Through the British brewery
group Whitbread (which also brews
Heineken beer under licence for the
U.K. market) Murphy's Irish Stout
was introduced into Whitbread's tied
houses.
Its introduction in the Whitbread
pubs basically took place without
much fanfare. The consumer was not
approached via big advertising cam
paigns or sales promotion activities.
Murphy's Irish Stout became increas
ingly more popular purely and sim
ply through word of mouth recom
mendation. British consumers
appreciated the stout from Cork as a
unique and special beer.
Murphy's Irish Stout is mean
while available in 12,000 pubs and
the brand now holds a 12% share of
the draught stout market. 'But you
ain't seen nothing yet', confidently
T II F. WORLD OF H E I N F K F N
