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Wetherspoon’s chief Sir Tim Martin said he would be having a “stern word” with the maker of Guinness after pubs were struck by shortages of the Irish stout in the crucial festive run-up.
Sir Tim, the founder and chief executive of JD Wetherspoon, called for Diageo to “get brewing” following weeks of Guinness rationing across Britain.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Sir Tim said: “I’m going to be having a stern word with them and say: ‘What’s happened to your crystal ball?’
“I think someone at Guinness has made a mistake . . . since we’ve worked with them for so long, we intend to forgive them.”
It comes weeks after restrictions were put in place for Guinness to ensure Diageo could keep supplying pubs up to Christmas and New Year.
The drinks giant is understood to have stressed that it needs to manage supply after surging sales of the Irish stout strained supplies.
The recent boom is believed to have been driven by the annual Autumn Internationals rugby fixtures as well as the cold spell of weather.
Guinness sales were around 19pc higher in the four weeks through to early November than they were last year, according to figures from industry group CGA.
Sir Tim told The Telegraph that he was not concerned about whether this would dampen Christmas trading, with the pub group having not run out of Guinness.
However, he said Wetherspoons had ordered a “tad more of everything else” to try to offset the crunch in supply, including experimenting with some real stouts.
Sir Tim joked that he did, however, “have private detectives following Guinness lorries making sure they don’t prioritise others”.
It follows scrutiny over Diageo’s decision to maintain deliveries of Guinness to pubs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with a spokesman saying earlier this month that it would “make all deliveries to our customers across the island of Ireland, as planned and without disruption”.
Sir Tim joked that he was “brought up in Belfast and [doesn’t] believe Guinness are guilty of sectarianism”.
The supply crunch comes after demand for the Irish stout, which was first brewed in the 18th century in Dublin, has ballooned.
Debra Crew, the chief executive of Diageo, said the surge in sales was partly down to more younger women buying the drink, with figures such as Kim Kardashian and Catherine, Princess of Wales boosting its popularity.
Ms Crew said the lower-calorie nature of Guinness also was helping sales. A pint of Guinness contains around 210 calories, compared to around 292 calories for a pint of BrewDog Punk IPA.
Earlier this month, a spokesman for Diageo said: “Over the past month we have seen exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in Great Britain.
“We have maximised supply and we are working proactively with our customers to manage the distribution to trade as efficiently as possible.”