Brewdog shuts 10 bars, including Camden, the first ever outside Scotland, at 3 days notice
Brewdog has announced the closure of 10 bars in Scotland and England with the earliest closing on Friday July 25th.
Unite Hospitality which has many members at Brewdog has rightly complained that a consultative process on redundancy, required by law, is being made a mockery of.
Brewdog does not recognise Unite and claims it is carrying out a two week consultative process with employees and some may be redeployed to other bars. Indeed one legal requirement is to see if there is suitable alternative employment if jobs are at risk. Another, which one might suspect is not being done, is to allow for counter proposals which can show how jobs could be saved if things were done differently. Finally since Brewdog claims to be a decent employer no doubt enhanced rather than statutory redundancy terms. We shall see
The Camden closure- quite a small pub- is particularly poignant as it was the first ever Brewdog opening outside Scotland on 10th December 2011. James Watt was atop a tank that drove around Camden High St. I was of course present (not on the tank).
Brewdog cites commercial reasons for the closures and there is no question that hospitality faces difficult times. However the reality is that Brewdog’s beers don’t have the cachet they once did, they are expensive, and the bars offering of guest beers is limited
The full list of the bars to be closed are: [[Aberdeen]] Flagship (Gallowgate), Brighton, Camden, Dundee, Leeds North Street, Oxford, Sheffield, Shepherds Bush, Shoreditch, York.
Leave a Reply