There have been some seismic sales in the UK beer sector during the last 10-plus years.
At the very end of 2015 North London’s Camden Town Brewery was sold to AB InBev. And at the start 2019 Fuller’s announced the sale of its entire beer, cider, and soft drinks brewing business to Asahi Europe Ltd for £250 million.
The deal, which included the company’s Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, London, left Fuller’s to instead focus on their pub and hotel business. While in 2022 Heineken, which had taken out a £40m minority stake in Beavertown back in 2018, agreed to buy the remaining shares, acquiring full ownership, of the London business.
Away from London and at the time of going to press, Scottish business Brewdog, which was founded by Martin Dickie and James Watt, had appointed AlixPartners, a London-based management consultant business to oversee the sale of the company.
According to reports, the sales process of its three businesses parts – brands, brewery and bars – is currently underway. Whether these are sold as one, or if Brewdog is broken up, remains to be seen. There have also been reports of James Watt attempting to buy back the business he helped start back in 2007.
But what is likely is that the 220,000 individual investors who purchased shares across the company’s Equity for Punks crowdfunding programme will come away with nothing. These funding rounds raised approximately £75m between 2009 and 2021.
It’s a little less than nine years since BrewDog raised money from US private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners by selling TSG a 23% stake for £213 million, which valued BrewDog at around $1billion. At the time TSG was advised by Ropes & Gray while BrewDog was advised by DLA Piper.
Through that deal, TSG was promised an 18% compound return on its investment, a return that comes into effect through an exit such as a sale or IPO. Through that 2017 investment BrewDog created a new class of preference shares so on that £213 million investment the figure now stands closer to £800m (as of 2024).
However Brewdog made pre-tax loss £59m in 2023 and £36.6m on sales of £357m in 2024. Its current valuation, coupled with the company’s existing debt would mean any sale would first have to cover TSG’s investment before any other investors make a return.
Potential interested parties may look to procure parts of Brewdog that include four breweries Ellon (Scotland), Columbus (Ohio, USA), Berlin (Germany), and Brisbane (Australia) and some 72 bars. These might go to separate brewing businesses and pub groups. Or perhaps acquired in one transaction. In the UK off-trade grocery market Brewdog still has a 4% market share and employs approximately 1,400 people. But news of a possible sale is the latest chapter in a turbulent story of beer and brewing.
Last summer Martin Dickie announced he was leaving the business stating at the time that “leaving BrewDog isn’t easy but I’m ready to spend less time travelling and spend some more time at home with my young family. It has been an honour to have worked with incredible, like-minded, colleagues who live in a world of flavour and experimentation”.
His departure came more than a year after his co-founder James Watt stepped down from his role as CEO position. At the start of this year Brewdog said it was closing its distilling operation, a decade after the spirits arm was founded.
In a statement released by Brewdog the company said that as with many businesses operating in a challenging economic climate and facing sustained macro headwinds, they “regularly review our options with a focus on the long-term strength and sustainability of the company”.
They added: “Following a year of decisive action in 2025, which saw a focus on costs and operating efficiencies, we have appointed AlixPartners to support a structured and competitive process to evaluate the next phase of investment for the business.
“This is a deliberate and disciplined step with a focus on strengthening the long-term future of the Brewdog brand and its operations. Brewdog remains a global pioneer in craft beer: a world-class consumer brand, the No.1 independent brewer in the UK and with a highly engaged global community.
“We believe that this combination will attract substantial interest, though no final decisions have been made. Our breweries, bars, and venues continue to operate as normal. We will not comment on any further speculation.”
