The new owner of BrewDog has called on beer lovers to give the defunct brand a "second chance", announcing an investment of more than £50m to improve the beer, pubs and working conditions. The US cannabis and drinks company Tilray acquired BrewDog in March this year for £33m, after the brewery went into administration following five years of losses and a series of controversies tied to founder James Watt's treatment of workers.
Some employees in 2021 accused Watt of fostering a "toxic work culture". Watt apologised for some of his behaviour and left the company in 2024. Tilray chief executive Irwin Simon said the company listens to BrewDog's customers and employees and has increased pay this year. Simon was speaking from a large BrewDog bar in Waterloo in central London.
Simon said Tilray is working on launching new beers and is investing in the Aberdeenshire brewery to improve the quality and reliability of existing lines. More than £1m of beer that failed to meet quality standards has been dumped. Tilray also took over the accounts of some key suppliers to secure continuity of ingredient supply. Simon stressed that Tilray is a long-term investor looking to grow the company and is considering acquiring additional British craft beers for its portfolio. He said he might also consider reviving BrewDog's closed distillery operation if he judged there was sufficient demand in the British market for it.
Administrators earlier this month revealed that creditors, to whom the failed "punk" brewery owes around £190m, will not be fully repaid. The March deal, in which Tilray took on BrewDog's brand, intellectual property, British breweries and 11 pubs, rendered the shares of more than 200,000 crowdfunding investors worthless. These "equity punks" continue to receive perks, including beer discounts, and some were invited to pose questions at the brand relaunch on Tuesday. One of them asked why BrewDog's beers could not be as cheap as Bud Light at £2 in Wetherspoons. Simon replied that their craft beers would never be that cheap, but added: "We deserve a second chance."
The March deal covered only 11 of BrewDog's chain of pubs, while 38 were closed and 440 employees lost their jobs. Tilray has since reopened five of those pubs. Simon said he hopes to open new pubs, but only on "A locations", not the "BCD locations" the previous owners had been considering. He believes BrewDog can recover from the negative publicity of the Watt era and return to annual sales of £350m from the current roughly £225m, and become profitable again with the right support. He said BrewDog could in the future be worth as much as £2bn.
"The brand name is BrewDog; it is not anyone's name. It is not about one person, it is about the team," Simon said. A new advertising campaign starting next week is based on the slogan "choose craft". Last week the new owners launched a campaign that appeared to target Watt, with messages such as "No More Cunning Stunts. Just Great Beer" alongside an image of Punk IPA and "A Little Less Allegation" alongside Elvis Juice. Tilray published a letter describing its dedication to BrewDog's future, stating that under its ownership the brewery will have "reasonable working practices, community initiatives and an approach that puts people first". The letter said: "We will take good care of this beloved Scottish craft beer business." Tilray has introduced 24 US craft beers owned by Tilray into BrewDog pubs and plans to produce some of them at BrewDog's Scottish brewery.
