LONDON — With its foot-stomping Irish music, traditional "fayre" and creamy pints of Guinness stout, the Kilkenny Pub is packed every night--with Germans.
That's not surprising, since this Irish pub isn't in Cork or Tipperary; it's in Berlin. It's one of hundreds of Irish-style pubs that in recent years have sprung up outside Eire to offer slow-pulled pints of Guinness stout and "halves" of Harp lager.
Like Rosie O'Grady's pub next to the Lenin Library in Moscow and Molly Malone's on Manuela Malasana in Madrid, the Kilkenny in Berlin is brewing up profits for its publican, or owner, by selling a bit of the blarney abroad.
At the bottom of each pint glass is the London-based brewer Guinness Plc and its Irish Pub Concept, a program that gives free advice on how to start up a realistic Irish saloon in hopes it will sell Guinness beer, the world's No. 1 stout.
More than 800 aspiring publicans have taken advantage of the program so far, and Guinness sales are booming.
"To have an Irish pub without Guinness is like having a library without books," said Stephen Lombard, retail development controller at Guinness Brewing Worldwide. "This is a highly profitable business. People will expect to see Guinness."
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Pints pulled in pubs, not cans sold in supermarkets, account for the majority of Guinness' beer sales. Accordingly, the brewer has found export sales fueled by exported Irish pubs, which have been opened abroad by expatriates and entrepreneurs exploiting the growing popularity of Irish-themed bars.
To broaden its sales base, Guinness has developed its own "Irish Pub Concept" to assist prospective publicans who wish to open an "authentic" Irish pub anywhere from Montreal to the Middle East.
"The message was loud and clear," Lombard said. "Irish pubs were going to be a major conduit for sales. If we made it easier for people to open pubs, it would accelerate the process."
Guinness employs a staff of 20 people across the globe to help publicans choose local real estate, secure liquor licenses, market their pubs and arrange food and beverage distribution contracts, typically with local suppliers of Guinness beers.
The company doesn't offer the service in the U.S. because laws there forbid brewers from participating in retailing their products.
The publican chooses from one of five basic pub designs and waits for the furniture and fittings to be shipped from Ireland. The publican pays the tab, which ranges from a minimum of 100,000 to as much as 2 million, depending on pub size and specifications.
