GUINNESS-OWNER DIAGEO is set to increase the price of its beers for the second time this year.

The latest increase will add 4 cent to the cost of a pint, excluding VAT.

The company said the decision is due to rising costs. 

In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for Diageo said: “We continue to experience rising input costs across our business operations in Ireland.

“We are working to manage and absorb much of this, but to maintain a sustainable business, we have written to our customers in the on-trade to advise them of an increase on draught beer list prices of 4 cent per pint.”

The price change will be applied across the whole Diageo draught beer range and will take effect from 14 August.

Other beers distributed by Diageo include Hop House 13, Rockshore, Carlsberg and Smithwicks.

The company last increased its prices in February, when it added 12 cent to the price of a pint due to “significant inflation in input costs across our operations”.

Reacting to the news, the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) said the price increase is “incomprehensible both in the need for such an increase and the timing of it”.

VFI president John Clendennen said: “Many of the factors under ‘rising business costs’ Diageo refer to as justification for the increase were either known back in February and included in that increase or, indeed, have reduced in the meantime.

“The timing is awful. We are in the middle of peak tourist season, businesses in tourist areas that need good summers to see them through the quiet winter period are suffering from the loss of accommodation beds, while the consumer is reeling from increased mortgage and other cost of living increases. I can’t think of a more inopportune time for a supplier to even be thinking of increasing prices, let alone doing it,” he said.

“I believe Diageo are out of tune with both their customers and the consumer. I will be calling on Diageo to review this decision immediately.”

According to the latest CSO consumer price index, the national average price of a pint of stout was €5.52, an increase of 39 cents on the same time last year.