After years of promoting patience as a drinker's most important virtue through its "good things come to those who wait" marketing campaign, Guinness has announced the test launch of a new "Fastpour" dispense system that delivers a pint of Guinness Draught Extra Cold (GDEC) in 25 seconds.
The new "ultrasonic" font, available only on GDEC, is designed to attract young, drinkers in busy outlets who can't be bothered to wait the 119.5 seconds it takes to serve a pint of the Black Stuff using the traditional two-part pour.
Pamela Wood, FastPour project leader, said: "Consumer research has shown us that some of our drinkers who enjoy GDEC in busier venues are experiencing some frustration regarding speed of service.
"Increased speed of pour will free-up staff faster to serve other customers so helping bars to improve the service experience for their drinkers. For the public, being away from their friends for lengthy periods while waiting at the bar and bartenders starting to serve other customers in the middle of the two part pour will become issues of the past ".
Miss Wood was anxious to stress that there are no plans to either replace the traditional two-part pour in pubs or introduce the speedy dispense for the standard Guinness variant.
"The two-part pour still remains at the heart of the brand," she added. "It's purely designed to meet a consumer need in bars where there's a clear issue of speed."
High octane young persons venues (YPV's) have traditionally been the brand's Achilles heel and previous attempts to solve the problem have failed to win over impatient drinkers.
A Guinness Draught in a Bottle concept was introduced two years ago but struggled to compete with the likes of Bacardi Breezer and Smirnoff Ice in the battle for fridge space and was confined to the off-trade last February.
At the same time, Guinness also abandoned its "good things come to those who wait" campaign and unveiled a new strategy, based on the power of self-belief, and designed to encourage sporadic Guinness drinkers to choose it more regularly.
The new font is to be trialled in 35 high volume Six Continents such as It's a Scream and O'Neills in London and Yorkshire for a three-month period.
Bob Cartwright, spokesman for trade partner Six Continents Retail, says, "Serving a round of Guinness requires patience and can take a lot of time. Our bars are often very busy and if this trial speeds up service and maintains quality, we and our customers will be very happy."
If the trial is successful, the technology will be rolled-out nationally in the next calendar year.