James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, has announced his intention to repurchase the craft beer company. This comes after BrewDog's recent sale to US cannabis seller Tilray for $33 million. Watt, who stepped down as CEO in May 2024, believes the company's performance was strong during his tenure, contradicting claims that he was responsible for its decline. He asserts that BrewDog was experiencing significant growth at the time of his departure, with supermarket sales seeing a 22.5% decline in the year leading up to May after he had left, from an already almost $2 billion valuation.
Watt plans to use his new company, Second Best, as the vehicle for this potential buy-back. Second Best was launched with the intention of giving free stakes to "Equity Punks" — original BrewDog investors who lost out when the company was sold to Tilray. More than 19,000 such investors have already registered for Second Best, and Watt intends to allocate up to 19.3% of Second Best to them, allowing them to claim the precise ownership stake they once held in BrewDog. He hopes this initiative will enable him to gather the necessary support and capital for a future acquisition.
Watt revealed he narrowly missed an earlier opportunity to buy back BrewDog before the Tilray acquisition. His previous offer, backed by controversial private equity firm Modella Capital and including $10 million of his own funds, would have preserved jobs, kept more locations open, and reinstated the Real Living Wage. BrewDog's current owner, Tilray, has expressed plans to restore the brand to a $1 billion valuation, despite recent sales figures showing a $10 million decrease year-on-year in supermarket sales and a drop in its UK craft beer market share from 54% to 49%. The sale of BrewDog led to the closure of 38 UK locations and 484 job losses.
