A group of bemused and irritable Guinness shareholders assembled in a half-empty conference room in London on Wednesday to see their much-loved 140-year old company name officially give way to a cocky, pretentious upstart called Diageo. The company formerly known as Guinness will, within the next few weeks, merge with Grand Metropolitan, the combined operation to be known as the much derided Diageo. But luddite punters were determined to go down fighting.
Guinness chairman Anthony Greener bravely fought to justify the new image, spending more time on the contentious name than the commercial merits of the £24 billion alliance. Diageo, he told the e.g.m., is a combination of Latin and Greek; dia being Latin for day and geo the Greek for world. Greener's explanation went down like a flat pint of the black stuff. Hostile comments ranged from "if it is such a good name it would require no explanation", to "is your best selling point a word from two dead languages?" One wag said the name was reminiscent of a medicine to prevent an unmentionable stomach disease, another thought Diageo was the new Brazilian signing playing centre half for Spurs. Another said the initials stood for "Don't imagine any great employment opportunities ".
Greener offered the reassurance that the name on the pint would not change, the only thing changing is the parent company's registered name. The struggle was doomed to failure as Greener held a winning hand of 97 per cent proxy votes. Thursday brought a hangover with publication of the long-awaited DTI report into the Guinness/Distillers scandal. Somewhat of a diabolical week for Guinness.
