BrewDog co-founder James Watt says he is ‘heartbroken’ after his firm was sold off for just £33million this week – with the loss of almost 500 jobs.
The Scottish brewery, which was valued at £2billion just a few years ago, was sold to US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for a fraction of that earlier this week.
A total of 38 UK bars were closed on Monday, when CEO James Taylor told 484 staff in an all-hands conference call that they were no longer employed.
Shares owned by the 220,000 ‘equity punks’ who invested some £75million in the company over seven funding rounds are now practically worthless.
In a post shared across several social media channels, self-espousing ‘punk’ and multimillionaire Mr Watt expressed contrition over the company’s downfall. However, it failed to impress some observers.
Describing the last week as ‘incredibly hard’, he wrote: ‘I am heartbroken for all of the hard working and passionate team members who have lost their jobs.
‘I am heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted.
‘And heartbroken to have dedicated the best 20 years of my life to something that ultimately did not have the ending we all wished for.’
Mr Watt – who stepped back from the role of CEO in 2024 amid allegations of a toxic culture within BrewDog – said he would have ‘loved to save every single job and every single equity punk investment’ but ‘couldn’t’, adding: ‘That will stay with me.’
He added that, ‘with the benefit of hindsight’ the firm had expanded too quickly and diversified too widely, and that he had not responded to PR crises in a way that was ‘authentic and true to who I am’.
‘I am sorry that I was not able to repay the faith you bestowed in me with the outcome you all deserved,’ he signed off the post.
Observers on social media responded with a mix of well-wishing and cynicism – noting that Watt and co-founder Martin Dickie shared in a reported £100million payday when they sold 22 per cent of the firm to US investment firm TSG Partners.
The 2017 deal gave TSG ‘preferential’ shares that entitled them to a return on their investment in the event the company was sold – over and above other investors, including the so-called ‘equity punks’ that are now unlikely to get any money back.
‘Are you “heartbroken” you gave the institutional investor preference over the equity punks James? An arrangement that ensured we received no return on our investments,’ wrote one commenter under Mr Watt’s LinkedIn post.
‘I’m sure you have plenty of sympathy for those left with no jobs and bills to pay whilst you sit in your penthouse overlooking Blackfriars,’ wrote one follower on Instagram, where Mr Watt has limited who can comment.
Others were more positive.
‘Haters will always hate but there is no doubt that Brewdog was at the heart of, what is now, a resurgent craft beer culture in the UK,’ said one fan on Instagram.
‘As an equity punk myself I’m happy to say that I was part of that revolution and am delighted with the non-financial return on that investment.’
An email sent to investors this week, seen by the Daily Mail, thanked amateur investors for their contributions – and said they would continue to receive benefits such as discounts – including an additional discount for those with BrewDog tattoos.
‘We know you will have questions, and we ask for your patience while we focus on supporting our people and stabilising the business,’ the email added.
New owner Tilray Brands, described euphemistically in the email as a ‘leading global lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company’, owns several brands of medical and consumer cannabis in the United States, as well as other alcohol businesses.
Watt, who is married to Made In Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, had sought to invest £10million of his own cash in the firm as part of a rescue deal that ultimately failed.
Some 733 staff have been retained in the sale, including operational staff and those working at 11 franchised pubs.
But those who were sacked were told, per the BBC, to claim for lost wages via the Insolvency Service after the firm was put into administration – putting the onus on the public purse to pick up the tab.
They were given little notice of the conference call that saw them sacked – which has been compared to the mass sacking conducted by P&O Ferries in 2022.
Bryan Simpson, lead organiser of Unite’s hospitality branch, described the conduct of BrewDog management as ‘nothing short of a national disgrace’.
‘This has all the hallmarks of the scandal at P&O Ferries… it is a disgrace that lessons have clearly not been learned across corporate Britain,’ he told the Mail.
‘A company does not lose 97 per cent of its value in nine years without catastrophic mismanagement.’
He added that the union is demanding answers over unpaid wages with appointed administrator AlixPartners.
James Brown, the former CEO of BrewDog’s bars division, said the Government should shoulder some blame for BrewDog’s woes after hiking National Insurance.
‘For years now, government policy on rates and employment taxes has steadily eroded confidence in hospitality,’ he wrote on LinkedIn.
‘The leadership over the nearly 20 years of BrewDog could never have envisaged the world post Brexit, Post Covid and the tax, costs and admin burden facing businesses today.’
BrewDog grew from a small beer brewing business founded by Watt and Dickie in 2007 to the world’s leading craft beer brand at its peak in the late 2010s.
However, it was plagued by a series of public relations misfires and allegations of a toxic working culture and inappropriate behaviour by Mr Watt, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing over the years.
In 2022, a BBC documentary aired claims that he had kissed a drunk customer and that female staff were given advice on how to avoid unwelcome attention from him on visits to bars.
Mr Watt later apologised for making anyone feel ‘uncomfortable’ – but went to regulator Ofcom challenging the programme’s claims. It upheld none of his complaints.
BrewDog has weathered PR storms over the years, facing claims that it has shed its original DIY ‘punk’ ethos and become one of the corporate juggernauts that it resented so deeply.
The BBC reported in 2022 that Mr Watt had once purchased £500,000 of shares in Dutch brewery Heineken during takeover talks; he also sunk £2million into an offshore hedge fund.
BrewDog itself ditched the ‘real’ living wage in 2024. It has also been criticised for recent rounds of closures and redundancies, and has been repeatedly challenged on its environmental claims.
The ‘Lost Forest’, a 10,000 acre woodland estate in the Scottish Highlands, was sold off after trees that BrewDog planted to offset its carbon emissions either died or failed to take root.
BrewDog’s international future is unclear. It has four breweries: its main headquarters in Ellon, Aberdeenshire; Columbus, Ohio in the US; Brisbane, Australia; and Berlin in Germany.
It told investors this week that its international businesses were ‘being reviewed’. However, the Berliner Morgenpost has reported that the German arm of the business is likely to be liquidated. It closed one Berlin bar last month.
Martin Dickie, co-founder of BrewDog, stepped away in 2025 citing personal reasons.
Mr Watt has since co-founded his new business Social Tip, which promises influencer-style payouts for people who promote brands on social media.
It has paid £500,000 to its 100,000 users since its launch last year – equivalent to £5 per user.
