James Watt eyes entire Brewdog UK business in comeback swoop
James Watt’s shock comeback bid for Brewdog would see him take control of the craft beer firm’s entire UK and Australian operations, CityAM has learned.
The Scottish entrepreneur, who co-founded Brewdog, has proposed to buy back the company’s entire operations excluding its US arm.
Watt’s bid marked a new twist in the dramatic Brewdog saga, which saw the craft beer firm be sold for only £33m despite once notching a £2bn valuation.
The beer tycoon announced his shock swoop on Wednesday, but it had been previously unclear what parts of Brewdog’s sprawling operations were included in his bid.
The company was sold to US cannabis and beer maker Tilray Brands in March. Though a swathe of its UK bars collapsed into administration during the deal, 17 remain in the UK, along with the firm’s flagship brewery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.
Watt wants entire UK business back
Watt is also attempting to snap up Brewdog’s remaining Australian operations, which were bought by Tilray soon after it took over the beer firm’s UK footprint.
This includes a brewery in Brisbane and five taprooms, including in Sydney and Perth.
Watt has opted not to make a play for Brewdog’s US operations, also owned by Tilray, which include a pub and hotel in Columbus, Ohio, and three bars in New Albany, Cleveland and Las Vegas.
The Brewdog co-founder launched his comeback bid through Second Best, a vehicle he set up to offer shares to thousands of “equity punks” who had bought shares in Brewdog but gained nothing from its eventual sale.
He claimed that each of the 43,000 retail investors who have signed up – and each of the Brewdog’s employees – would get a stake in the beer firm if he bought it back.
“The punks and the crew built this company and Brewdog deserves to belong to them once more,” he wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
Brewdog ‘not for sale’
But Watt could be facing an investigation from the UK’s data privacy watchdog, The Guardian has reported.
Several former investors in Brewdog have complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), saying they do not understand how Watt obtained their contact details to offer them a stake in the bid.
These “equity punks” were central to Brewdog’s rapid rise from a Scottish startup to a $2bn titan, with about 200,000 everyday investors buying into the firm.
Watt and his co-founder Martin Dickie had both stepped away from the company before its sale, following allegations – fiercely denied by the founders – of a toxic workplace and a “cult of personality”.
Nasdaq-listed Tilray has sought to shrug off Watt’s approach, insisting that Brewdog is “not for sale”.