Diageo toasts Guinness’s golden year as women fall madly in love with the stout

Women are drinking more Guinness than ever before and its rise in popularity shows no sign of slowing down.

Announcing its annual results, Guinness maker Diageo said 27 per cent more women were drinking the “black drink” compared with last year.

This comes as celebrities including reality TV star Kim Kardashian and pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Beyoncé continue to reinforce the drink’s “cool” reputation after posting photos of themselves drinking pints.

Diageo’s UK boss Nuno Teles told the Mail that Diageo’s UK business had been boosted by a “golden year for Guinness” and major sporting sponsorships including rugby’s Six Nations tournament and football’s Premier League.

This boosted overall UK sales by 5 per cent over the year.

But global sales at Diageo, which also makes Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Tanqueray, fell for the first time since 2020.

Sales hit £15.8bn in the year to the end of June, down 1.4 per cent on the previous 12 months.

The group also faced a slowdown in sales in Latin America and North America, where consumers are reluctant to spend a lot of money on alcohol.

Scotch whisky was Diageo’s worst-performing drinks category, with overall sales down 10 percent from last year, and gin down 8 percent.

Tequila and vodka saw sales decline by 5 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Sales at Casamigos, the tequila company co-founded by actor George Clooney, also fell 22 percent, Diageo added.

Despite falling global sales at Diageo, the company managed to make profits of £4.7 billion during the year.

This represented an increase of 8 percent compared to the previous year.