Guinness beer owner Diageo rattled an Irish icon, announcing plans to lay off more than half of its brewery workers, close two breweries and shift most production to a new, high-tech plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.

The British beverage maker decided not to close the landmark Guinness brewery, one of Dublin's oldest businesses and a top tourist attraction, after concluding this would do too much damage to its brand image and customer sentiment. The company said the move to a new suburban megabrewery was necessary to compete with the rise of lower-cost breweries in Eastern Europe, Russia and China.