{"id":117554,"date":"2026-03-02T17:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117554"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:21:25","slug":"bars-close-and-hundreds-lose-jobs-as-us-firm-buys-brewdog-in-33m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117554","title":{"rendered":"Bars close and hundreds lose jobs as US firm buys Brewdog in \u00a333m deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 22 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Hundreds of people have been made redundant and dozens of bars have closed after craft beer firm Brewdog went into administration.<\/p>\n

US beverage and medical cannabis company Tilray has bought the company\u2019s UK brewing operations, brand and 11 pubs in a \u00a333m deal.<\/p>\n

Administrators said the sale had preserved 733 jobs \u2013 but that 484 jobs had been lost and 38 bars had closed after they were not included in the rescue deal.<\/p>\n

And they said no equity holders \u2013 including those who invested in the brewer\u2019s Equity for Punks scheme \u2013 would get any return from the deal.<\/p>\n

Aberdeenshire-based Brewdog\u00a0announced last month\u00a0that consultants AlixPartners had been brought in after the firm failed to make a profit in recent years. On Monday, they were appointed as administrators.<\/p>\n

AlixPartners said there had been \u201csignificant interest\u201d in the company but that it had not received any offer which would have preserved Brewdog in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegrettably, a total of 38 bars in the UK will close with immediate effect, leading to 484 redundancies,\u201d said the administrators.<\/p>\n

Tilray will take control of Brewdog facilities including its brewery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, and The Hop Hub, a national distribution centre in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.<\/p>\n

BrewDog\u2019s 18 franchise bars in the UK and internationally will continue to operate.<\/p>\n

Tilray, which already owns several US craft beer brands, described the deal as a significant opportunity for growth in the UK and international markets.<\/p>\n

The two firms are still negotiating for a deal on Brewdog\u2019s assets in the United States and Australia.<\/p>\n

Brewdog\u2019s German arm \u2013 which includes a brewery and bar in Berlin \u2013 was not included in the sale and will be liquidated.<\/p>\n

Brewdog, which was founded by friends James Watt and Martin Dickie in 2007, has four breweries and about 100 pubs around the globe.<\/p>\n

All its bars were closed on Monday to enable staff to attend staff meetings, and online sales were temporarily suspended.<\/p>\n

\"Bars<\/figure>\n

Concerns had been raised in recent weeks about what might happen to the company\u2019s small investors in the event of a sale.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the firm launched a fundraising scheme called Equity for Punks.<\/p>\n

About 200,000 people put money into the scheme, which offered a stake in the company, discounts and perks.<\/p>\n

The investors typically spent about \u00a3500 on shares costing \u00a320 to \u00a330 each, although others invested larger sums.<\/p>\n

Before it closed to new investors in 2021, Equity for Punks is said to have raised \u00a375m which was used to expand the business into an international brand.<\/p>\n

In 2017 a US equity firm TSG Consumer Partners acquired a 22% stake in Brewdog.<\/p>\n

But unlike the Equity for Punks\u2019 \u201cordinary\u201d shareholders, TSG was given \u201cpreference shares\u201d.<\/p>\n

That meant that if Brewdog was sold, TSG was first in the queue to get back its investment plus any return owed, possibly leaving little or nothing for small investors.<\/p>\n

Some of\u00a0these people correctly predicted their shares would become \u201cworthless\u201d.<\/p>\n

Job losses and cut backs<\/h2>\n

Last month, the company halted production of gin and vodka brands at its distillery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.<\/p>\n

Brewdog had announced job cuts across the business in October last year, after posting a \u00a337m loss.<\/p>\n

Earlier in 2025 it announced the closure of 10 bars across the UK, including its flagship pub in Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

The company employed around 1,400 people.<\/p>\n

When it was founded in Aberdeenshire the firm portrayed itself as a rebellious challenger to a UK brewing industry it regarded as stuffy and corporate.<\/p>\n

But in 2024, the firm faced a backlash after revealing it would no longer hire new staff\u00a0on the real living wage, instead paying the lower legal minimum wage.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0BBC Scotland documentary\u00a0also highlighted allegations about the behaviour by former chief executive James Watt. That prompted a complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom,\u00a0but it was subsequently rejected.<\/p>\n

Watt later stood down as chief executive officer and moved to a newly-created position of \u201ccaptain and co-founder\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dickie left the company last year, saying that he took the decision for personal reasons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hundreds of people have been made redundant and dozens of bars have closed after craft beer firm Brewdog went into administration.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17760,1910,10,9,2044],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brewdog","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}