This is one of the earliest examples produced by the Independant Export Bottlers who bought bulk Guinness in Hogs Heads and bottled using their own label. Most often they did not even mention the Brewer by name but sold on their own reputation and under their own trademarks. They date from the 1860's but others would have been in circulation some 20 years before. Their use had died out by 1896.

Bottlers used Caution, Certificate or Guarantee labels during the mid 1800's on Export Guinness as the second label on the bottle. Guinness used over 30 export bottlers who each had their own devices and marks to distinguish their product from any others. These labels ranged in size from full sized to small and were found on the back or neck of the bottle. Some were just pictorial with the bottlers name and signature but others were mainly text which testified to the genuine nature of the product, it's quality and to beware of imitations. Use of these labels gradually died out as the bottlers went out of business, were taken over or the surviving companies amalgamated in 1935 to form Export Bottlers Ltd. The example shown is dated 1906.

This is an example of a bottlers own label which now states the brewer of the beer to be Guinness. These can date from 1860 and were often the main label on the bottle. Their usage follows that of the Caution labels above and some had died out and been replaced by the use of the Guinness Trademark label by 1896. Bottlers who sold other brewers stout or porter as well as Guinness were not allowed the Trademark label for their Guinness bottles. Instead they had to supply their own which had to have it's design vetted by Guinness. After 1896 if these labels were used then it was as well as the Guinness Trademark label and this label became the back label. Macfee labels continued into the late 1950's but all others (as with the example shown) had ceased in use by 1939.

This Extra Stout label is the first Trademark label registered (1st October 1862) and was to be issued to bottlers by Guinness. Only bottlers who sold no other brown stout or porter were allowed to use it. It was used for FES sales overseas until 1910. In 1888 the design was modified to have LTD printed beneath the signature. This example dates from 1875. The first bottler to get exclusive rights to use the TM label on export beer was E&J Burke in 1862. Other bottlers were encouraged to use a certificate label which stated the beer was Guinness. In 1874 Guinness issued the TM label to other export bottlers and by 1896 they insisted that all bottles carried their TM label.

This is the first FES TM label issued in 1910 to replace the use of the ES label.

Export Bottlers Ltd was formed in 1935 by the amalgamation of many of the London export bottlers. They used the TM label and ceased the use of their own independent branded labels. The EBL labels ceased usage in 1952 but some examples survived dated 1960.

Guinness Exports Ltd were formed in 1950 and still bottle export beer today for any country that does not brew it's own Guinness under license. In 1953 the words at the bottom were changed to St James's Gate and the apostrophe 'S was dropped from Guinness. In 1956 the red numbers in the center of the label which gave the date of bottling were changed and encoded so that the drinker could no longer read the date.

Apart from the two earlier unsuccessful attempts to brew in the USA, the first overseas brewery was in Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria, late in 1962. Other overseas breweries started up soon after in Malaysia, the Caribbean and Ghana. They each had their own labels printed. This example dates from 1966.

This label, used in Puerto Rico up until 1963, retains the use of the Dog's Head brand which originally belonged to Read Brothers.

The square black background label was introduced from 1963 onwards.

In the early 1990's Guinness introduced several changes in design. The red signature type seems only to be used in Kenya. Only Haiti used the short signature type. The gold foil label type was introduced into some markets in 1992.