Brewdog sale: what happened next?
The US cannabis and craft beer company Tilray bought Brewdog’s UK brewery, its brand and eleven bars on March 2nd 2026. 38 bars were closed and 484 workers sacked on the spot.
Subsequently Tilray acquired Brewdog assets in America and Australia while the German operation was closed pre-sale. A number of Brewdog franchise pub remain around the globe including several in the UK.
At the top level there was an argument on LinkedIn and the media between James Watt and Tilray CEO Dwight Simon. Watt claimed concern about the Equity for Punks ordinary shareholders and said he had spoken to Simon about this. Apparently he had at some point before the March 2026 sale- Simon said Tilray had previously looked at bids for Brewdog. Simon also underlined that he had not spoken to Watt post sale and that the Stigma of Watt was an issue for Brewdog.
Having examined the books further Tilray announced plans to acquire five more Brewdog pubs from the Administrators and press reports suggested they had attempted to re-hire workers. Unite the Union condemned this as fire and rehire (which will be illegal from January 2027) but it’s not clear where this is now going.
The Administrators appear to be better at offloading ex-Brewdog pubs than Brewdog was itself after previous closures and numbers of bars including Plymouth, Bristol and Basingstoke have reopened under new indy owners.
Meanwhile Tilray has announced plans to market Brewdog beers in areas of the US, including some New York location, where they were not previously available. Tilray also announced that it had the contract to brew Carlsberg beers in the US.
As a result of acquisitions Tilray is the fourth largest craft brewer in the US and Simon announced plans to sell Montauk Brewing beers in Brewdog bars in the UK and market them in Europe.
Brand wise Lords cricket ground pulled out of their contract with Brewdog and an announcement on a new provider is awaited although the MCC did reassure members that cask beer will still be available in the Pavillion.
By contrast St Helens rugby who play at the Brewdog stadium are keeping the link and announced a new image based on Tilray’s health and community work.
I haven’t provided links but I’m not trying to be the new Matthew Goodwin. All of the above should be easy to Google (which is where I found it). Reports of errors gratefully received and will be corrected.
Meanwhile my piece for Culture Matters on how Brewdog might have survived if it had been run rather differently. What is clear is that Brewdog is now a rather smaller brand than it was a few months ago and Tilray is on a voyage of discovery. It would help if it recognised Unite the Union
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