Kmflett's Blog

When Brewdog was sold to US outfit Tilray on March 2nd 484 workers were sacked on the spot, almost certainly illegally. Outstanding pay etc and statutory redundancy (for those with over two years service) is picked up by the Government.

In an even less good position are Brewdog’s creditors. Brewdog had debts of £553.8m when it was wound up. After the sale reports suggest there was a £480m hole in the accounts.

Brewdog’s banker HSBC had secured £85m of debt against the brewery so (I’m not expert in insolvency!) may well get some back.

Other unsecured creditors will get next to nothing. The media has already covered the impact on the Equity for Punks ‘shareholders’ but this will also impact companies that supplied materials to Brewdog- malt and hops for example- and brewers whose beers appeared as guests in Brewdog bars. There may well be a wider economic impact on parts of the UK ‘craft beer’ economy.

In fact unremarked in media reports the figures do raise the issue of whether Brewdog is currently really a going concern at all.