Most comment (including mine) on James Watt’s recent LinkedIn post has been focused on his thoughts on Capital Gains Tax and possible tax exile.
However Watt also ponders what the future of Brewdog is. It would appear that status quo is not an option (a favourite thought of business leaders). An IPO remains a possibility (flotation on the stock market) but that has to be prepared for publicly. So far on that nothing.
Other options include a further private equity buy-out and Watt also notes a sale to Carlsberg or Heineken. Watt says that this is ‘not part of the plan’ but ‘everyone’s has always got a price’
Meanwhile Brewdog has filed its accounts for 2023, which in the wider circumstances of the hospitality industry are not that bad. Perhaps noteworthy profits are significantly up in several Brewdog operations outside of the UK, but nothing is said about the UK itself. The biggest contributions to profit were made by Brewdog Las Vegas and Brewdog Waterloo. The latter bar has been the subject of much adverse comment particularly on employee relations. While losses overall are significantly up to £59m this reportedly is due to one off charges
In reality until (and if ) Brewdog does float publicly transparency is limited.
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