Diageo has placed weekly limits on supplies of Guinness to customers in the UK.

Guinness sales in the UK have proved robust in recent quarters but the company is believed to have seen a further spike in the last few weeks amid cold weather and major international rugby fixtures in the country.

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The fresh jump in sales has prompted Diageo to set up weekly allocations but the company remains confident it can meet demand.

“Over the past month we have seen exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in GB [Great Britain],” a Diageo spokesperson said. “We have maximised supply and we are working proactively with our customers to manage the distribution to trade as efficiently as possible.”

According to data from research firm CGA, beer volumes dipped between July and October year on year in the UK. By contrast, keg sales of Guinness were up 20%.

Diageo is building a new brewery in Ireland to produce ale and beer brands such as Hop House 13, Harp, Smithwick’s and Kilkenny. Moving the brewing of those brands from Diageo’s St. James’s Gate site in Dublin will allow the company to boost the production of Guinness.

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In the year to the end of June, worldwide sales of Guinness were up 15% on an organic basis. Diageo said it had seen “double-digit growth for seven consecutive halves”.

When the company published its annual results for the period, it said Guinness had been “the number one selling beer in Great Britain by value in the second half of the fiscal”.

In October, Diageo announced a new €30m ($32.5m) investment into the production of its non-alcoholic Guinness 0.0 in Ireland.

Guinness 0.0 is sold on draught in 1,700 pubs across the island of Ireland, which Diageo plans to increase to 2,000 venues by the end of December this year.

In September, Diageo began its official draught trials for Guinness 0.0 in the UK on-premise.