BrewDog’s chief executive told investors their recent headline financial figures did ‘not make for happy reading’ but that they were ‘on the right path’ and ‘doing the right things’.
James Taylor’s statement came before it emerged that the embattled brewers’ beer had been axed by almost 2,000 pubs across Britain as their popularity continues to wane.
It was revealed that the company’s range of draught beers have disappeared entirely from around 1,860 pubs in the last two years, according to private industry data, meaning their UK distribution has been cut by more than a third.
BrewDog’s best-known beer, Punk IPA, suffered the worst loss after being removed from 1,980 pubs – a 52 per cent decline in distribution – with pubs now opting for rivals such as Camden Town and Beavertown.
The data also showed that most of the pubs scrapping BrewDog beers are part of large chains, removing a key source of revenue for the brewer as it struggles to revive its fortunes.
When addressing investors on the Equity for Punks forum on June 27, Mr Taylor said: ‘Right now, the headline numbers do not make happy reading.
‘Revenue and EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation] remain behind budget and last year. That underperformance isn’t across the entire business and there are areas of real momentum and solid fundamentals, but there are clear challenges in our Bars that have had a material impact on group profitability. Year-to-date, our group revenue is tracking c (9)% behind PY after a poor Q1.
‘That said, there are positive signs that things are moving in the right direction, and I’m confident H2 will be meaningfully stronger.
‘Some of our key growth engines are performing well. Grocery and Impulse are in growth and we are seeing our highest market share. With new beers and Christmas plans locked in, these channels will continue this momentum.
‘In On Trade, our fantastic new partnerships with Lords and London Stadium will bring growth in H2.
‘In our bars, we are already starting to see gradual improvement in performance but there is a long way to go.
‘These “shoot of recovery” are being delivered by all the hard work the team is delivering and with H2 bookings in our key icons sites significantly ahead of plan and 2024, we remain confident that, after a period of inertia, our bar business will be buoyant again.
‘Our Fresh launch has had an excellent response internally from the crew, from consumers and from our retail partners. We’ve refreshed menus, energised teams, introduced new benefits, introduced a new Charter, brought in new structures and redesigned headliner cans.
‘But this is just the start of what we want to do to bring that energy and excitement back to our business. A whole series of initiatives and innovation is planned and will be delivered.
‘There’s still a lot of work ahead to do across our business. But I’m confident that H2 will reflect the progress we’re making. We’re on the right path, doing the right things and the results will follow.
‘This coming month is a big one for the business as we look forward to welcoming thousands of Equity Punks on site for the 2025 Annual General Mayhem.
‘Last year was my first AGM, and, not knowing what it would be like, I genuinely felt privileged to be part of it and I’m looking forward to this year.
‘Of course, no AGM is without incredible beers and the team have been working hard on brewing some incredible beers for the event.’
More recently, Mr Taylor of Brewdog said: ‘We could not be more excited about the future. We are bringing BrewDog to a broader and more diverse audience of beer drinkers.’
BrewDog has recorded losses of £59m in 2023 and £30.5m in 2022. Mr Taylor admitted in a recent interview that the company would be making another loss this year.
Mr Taylor, who formerly served as the brewer’s chief financial officer, is the second CEO to take over since James Watt stepped back in May 2024 amid a flurry of accusations of improper conduct.
An industry insider believes the pub retrenchment will make BrewDog ever more reliant on JD Wetherspoon, whose 794 pubs now make up a significant chunk of its remaining distribution.
Lauren Caroll, BrewDog’s chief operating officer, told The Telegraph after they obtained the new figures, that independent brewers ‘across the board’ have felt the ‘squeeze from the economic pressures’ in the pub trade.
She said: ‘With costs rising and consumers watching their spend, pub groups have been narrowing their ranges, and brewery-owned pubs are putting more emphasis on their own brands.
‘It’s not just us – every independent brewer has been affected. We saw the trend coming, which is why we’ve shifted focus to high-impact channels like festivals, stadiums, and independent [pubs].’
Last month, the company announced the closure of 10 of its own branded bars across the UK including its flagship site in Aberdeen after deciding they were not ‘commercially viable’.
The chain had started the year by closing six pubs across the world, including two in England, three in Europe and one in England.
BrewDog has weathered a number of publicity storms in recent years as its reputation has taken a hammering. It has also faced stiff competition from new entrants into the ‘craft beer’ market.
The chain was founded in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie, rising to prominence in the 2010s amid a surge in demand for independent beers and hoppy IPAs.
Mr Watt showed a knack for marketing and drove up the brand’s popularity with stunts such as driving a tank through London and brewing what it claimed was the world’s strongest beer.
He then married Made In Chelsea media personality Georgia Toffolo earlier this year and has become a frequent critic of the Labour government on LinkedIn.
In May, it was revealed that the newlyweds are worth a staggering £425 million, according to The Sunday Times, overtaking the likes of Ed Sheeran, Lord Sainsbury, Harry Styles and Lewis Hamilton.
However in recent years, the company’s fortunes have started to turn after it emerged staff reported being unhappy working there.
Mr Watt’s tenure has been marred by controversy in recent years, with the firm accused by former workers in an open letter in 2021 of having a ‘culture of fear’ within the business, with ‘toxic attitudes’ towards junior staff.
BrewDog apologised and promised to ‘listen, learn and act’.
Mr Watt later admitted to being ‘too intense and demanding’ amid a workplace culture row where he was accused of inappropriate behaviour and abusing his power.
Speaking with Steven Bartlett on the Diary of a CEO podcast about his leadership at the company, he admitted to previously pushing people ‘too far’ because of his ‘high standards.’
When James Watt first set up a brewery in his humble Aberdeen garage in 2007, even he may have struggled to believe how much it would change his life.
Mr Watt comes from a family of fishermen and used to help his father on his fishing boat in the North Sea. On his LinkedIn profile he claims to be a ‘fully qualified deep sea captain’.
He graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in law and economics. After landing a job as a trainee solicitor he quit after two weeks – branding ‘conforming’ as ‘painful at best’ – and, three years later, started BrewDog with Martin Dickie.
They decided on the name because Mr Watt’s father Jim had recently got a puppy.
The business struggled at first but took off when, after around six months, Tesco placed an order to sell its beer across the country.
In 2008 his plea for investment was turned down by Dragons’ Den, but in 2021, he said it would have turned into £360m – the best deal in the programme’s history.
Needless to say the success of the company has brought him enormous wealth, and upgraded his social status, to the point where he now dates Georgia Toffolo – a certified Queen of the Jungle.
Mr Watt, who is divorced with two daughters, has very much been the face of the company since its inception.
In 2023, it was reported he sought specialist help after he was described as ‘semi-autistic’ in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards staff.
He was diagnosed with ADHD – which causes people to be restless and impulsive – and Asperger syndrome, a form of autism.
Mr Watt drew criticism in December 2024 when he made a LinkedIn post that proposed delaying his marriage to Georgia Toffolo to avoid tax.
Mr Watt – whose company has been accused of having a ‘rotten culture’ – said that his actions were done with ‘100 per cent good intentions.’
BrewDog is now on its third CEO in just over a year after Mr Watt stepped back from the role in May 2024, three months after Ofcom rejected a complaint he had lodged against the BBC, after it made a documentary outlining misconduct allegations.
He denied claims that he made female bartenders feel ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘powerless’ and that he would take intoxicated women on private late-night tours of the brewery.
The self-described BrewDog ‘captain’ faced a number of improper conduct allegations in 2021 concerning female staff, and was revealed to have invested in Heineken, contrasting with his brewery’s anti-establishment ‘punk’ image.
Months before he quit, he announced that the firm would pay staff the ‘real’ Living Wage as calculated by the Resolution Foundation as it struggled to turn a profit.
The firm is continuing to weather accusations of an image problem after ditching its claim to be ‘carbon negative’ after it abandoned offsetting schemes that it claimed were both too expensive and not efficient enough to justify the label.
It had already been criticised for using the label by advertising watchdogs, and was slammed by environmentalists for its claim of creating a carbon-negative forest in Scotland after it was revealed that half of the 500,000 saplings had already died.
Despite this, Mr Taylor told the Grocer in June that he did not believe the firm had an image problem.
He said: ‘It’s boring to focus on data, but the data says consumers think of us as a business that produces really high-quality beer. That’s how we’re perceived by the vast majority of the public.’
Further criticism has been heaped on BrewDog’s decision to sell a stake in the company to the American private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners in 2017, which minted Watt and Dickie as millionaires.
The unorthodox deal forced BrewDog to deliver an 18 per cent compounding return to TSG, which rapidly increases the interest on TSG’s shares every year.
It is believed to threaten the shareholdings of thousands of ‘Equity Punk’ retail investors who poured their money into the brewer as it grew.
In July, the Financial Times reported that the terms of that transaction ‘turned what was long regarded as the poster child for crowd funding success into a cautionary tale’.
All the shares sold to retail investors, known as the 130,000 so-called ‘Equity Punks’, will probably be worthless unless a generous buyer suddenly wants to purchase the lossmaking BrewDog.
BrewDog’s latest blow comes as a political storm continues to rumble over the Government’s lack of support for the pub trade.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been blamed for pushing restaurants and pubs into ‘survival mode’ as two venues have shut per day for the first half of 2025.
Data shows the number of hospitality sites plunged by 374 to 98,746 sites at the end of June, sparking fresh concerns about the fight for survival faced by many businesses.
It means that the sector is now 14.2 per cent smaller than at the start of Covid in March 2020, with more than 16,000 net closures over the past five years.
Researchers pointed to a cocktail of costs, including higher National Insurance contributions for employers, business rates and wages.
The worrying figures come just weeks after TV star and landlord Jeremy Clarkson, told The Mail on Sunday that penalising business rates had left publicans ‘like Butch and Sundance at the end of the movie – taking fire from absolutely everywhere’.