BrewDog has its beers axed by nearly 2,000 pubs as bars turn away from embattled brewer - as CEO warns it will make loss for third year in a row

Daily Mail​

a day ago

BrewDog's beers have been axed by almost 2,000 pubs across Britain as the embattled brewers' popularity continues to wane.
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.
The blow means BrewDog's UK distribution has been cut by more than a third.
It also shows that its best-known beer, Punk IPA, has suffered the worst loss after being removed from 1,980 pubs – a 52 per cent decline in distribution.
Pubs are now reducing their offerings or opting for rival beers such as Camden Town and Beavertown instead.
The data, which was seen by the Telegraph, revealed most of the pubs scrapping BrewDog beers are part of large chains, removing a key source of revenue for the brewer at the same time as it struggles to revive its fortunes.
The collapse in BrewDog's UK distribution comes as CEO James Taylor recently told investors that its financials did not make for 'happy reading'.
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 is the second new CEO to take over since founder James Watt stepped back amidst 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, said: 'Independent brewers across the board have felt the squeeze from the economic pressures hitting the pub trade.
'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'.
And 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.
But it has also faced stiff competition from new entrants into the 'craft beer' market.
It 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.
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.
However in recent years, the company's fortunes have started to turn after it emerged staff reported being unhappy working there.
BrewDog is on its third CEO in just over a year after 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.
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.
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 ditched 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, CEO James 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.
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'.