BrewDog bought by US cannabis and drinks firm for £33m, costing nearly 500 jobs
The UK and Irish assets of BrewDog, the Scottish self-styled “punk” brewer, have been sold to the US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for £33m, in a deal that will cost nearly 500 jobs and leave legions of the company’s early-stage crowdfunders empty-handed.Tilray agreed a deal to buy BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK brewing operations and 11 “strategic” bars in the UK and Ireland, the two companies confirmed, preserving 733 jobs.The remaining 38 bars will close immediately, at a cost of 484 jobs.Tilray said it was negotiating separately to buy BrewDog assets in the US and Australia.“No offer was made at any stage of the sales process, from any prospective bidder, which would have preserved BrewDog in its entirety,” AlixPartners, which acted as the administrator for BrewDog, said in a statement.
Unite, the trade union, said: “Nearly 500 livelihoods have been wiped out while yet another corporate deal is stitched together behind closed doors.“The way in which senior management have conducted themselves throughout this sales process has been nothing short of a national disgrace – both the press and Tilray announced the deal before workers were told.”More than 200,000 “equity for punks” investors, many of whom had at one stage hoped to cash in from a stock market float projected to value the company at £2bn, will not receive anything, according to AlixPartners.Unite added: “A company does not lose 97% of its value in the space of nine years without catastrophic mismanagement.Directors past and present pursued reckless expansion and failed strategies, and now workers are paying the price for boardroom failure.
”James Watt and Martin Dickie, who co-founded the business in 2007, are thought to have already made £100m between them – three times Monday’s sale price – by cashing out shares in 2017, when the private equity group TSG bought 22% of the company.The Tilray deal comes less than a month after the company put itself up for sale after five years of losses and a string of brand-damaging controversies relating to the treatment of staff, particularly under Watt’s tenure.Several suitors are understood to have circled BrewDog, including the Danish beer company Royal Unibrew and a consortium involving Watt himself, attempting to regain control of a company from which he stepped back less than two years ago.But Tilray’s chair and chief executive, Irwin D Simon, said it had agreed a deal that, he said, would “refocus BrewDog on the craft beer excellence that made it beloved in the first place and strategically invest to return the operations to profitable growth”.Tilray said the separate purchase of BrewDog’s US and Australian assets would probably be closed within 30 days.
The 11 UK and Ireland bars that are part of the deal are Birmingham, Dublin, Manchester Peter Street and DogTap Ellon in Aberdeenshire, plus DogHouse and Lothian Road in Edinburgh, and Canary Wharf, Paddington, Seven Dials, Tower Hill and Waterloo in London.US-based Tilray made its name as one of the corporate pioneers of the legal medicinal and “adult use” cannabis industry in the US and Canada.Its stable of products includes recreational products laced with THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, including Chowie Wowie edibles and Bake Sale, a strain with “approachable” THC levels designed for cooking.Headquartered in New York, Tilray exports medicinal cannabis around the world, including to the UK.But it is also one of the largest US craft brewers, after scooping up independent beer companies including Montauk, Terrapin, Green Flash and Redhook Ale.
The addition of BrewDog will give Tilray one of the most recognisable brewers in the UK, with five of the top “craft” beer labels, including its flagship Punk IPA and brews such as Hazy Jane and Elvis Juice.But the US company must also address a growing sense, in the UK at least, that a brand once seen as the “punk” upstart to global brewing corporations has lost its challenger status, signalling that “Peak BrewDog” is in the past.The Scottish brewer lost nearly £37m last year as sales growth ground to a virtual halt, capping a rocky period after Watt’s departure as chief executive.During 2025, BrewDog was axed from 2,000 pubs as customers opted for rival brews.It also shut 10 of its own bars, citing tough trading conditions.
Founded by Watt and Dickie in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, in 2007, the brand became popular during the 2010s as demand increased for craft beers.It also opened a global network of more than 70 bars.Its rapid growth was underpinned by eye-catching stunts, often taking critical aim at larger rivals.But in 2021, former staff of BrewDog accused the company and Watt of creating a “culture of fear” in which workers were bullied and “treated like objects”.In an open letter that was shared on social media the company was accused of cutting corners on health and safety, espousing values it did not live by, and creating a “toxic” culture that left staff suffering from mental illness.
While Watt apologised for some of his conduct, he also hired private investigators to gather intelligence on people he said had maligned him, including by taking part in a BBC documentary.Watt stepped down in 2024 and has since focused on new ventures, including Social Tip, which pays people to make social media posts about brands.He has also maintained a vocal social media presence, criticising taxes on the wealthy, speculating that he may delay his marriage to the reality TV star Georgia Toffolo to maximise tax relief, and attending Nigel Farage’s birthday party.
Farage emulating ‘his hero Trump’ in deriding byelection results, says new Green MP
Nigel Farage has been accused of Donald Trump-style election denial by the Green party’s new MP for Gorton and Denton, after he claimed her Reform rival “came first” among British-born voters in last week’s byelection.Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England last week after winning 14,980 votes, more than 4,400 ahead of Reform’s candidate, who came second.After the election, Reform reported allegations of “family voting” – where people appear to collude on votes in breach of secret ballot rules – to Greater Manchester police and the Electoral Commission.Outlining a new Reform policy that he said would allow only British citizens to vote in parliamentary elections, Farage added: “I’m absolutely convinced that amongst British-born voters, Matthew Goodwin came first in their election last week. Of that, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever
Starmer says UK ‘not joining strikes’ on Iran but will continue defensive action – as it happened
In a statement that stressed Britain was not involved in the initial wave of attacks on Iran, Starmer said that the country will not join the US and Israel in offensive strikes. Instead the UK will focus on “defensive actions”.Starmer added that the US will use British bases for similar purposes, with a goal of destroying Iran’s capability to fire more missiles.“We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran, and we will not join offensive action now, but in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones, we will protect our people in the region, and support the collective self-defence of our allies, because that is our duty to the British people,” he said.“It is the best way to eliminate the urgent threat, to prevent the situation spiralling further, and support a return to diplomacy
Starmer says UK will not join ‘regime change from the skies’ on Iran
Keir Starmer has issued his strongest rebuke yet of Donald Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies”.The prime minister said the UK would not join offensive strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, but defended his decision late on Sunday to permit the US to conduct defensive strikes on Iranian missile sites from RAF bases, saying that was “the best way to protect British interests and British lives”.As MPs urged Starmer not to allow the UK to be dragged further into the conflict, Starmer suggested he had qualms about the US action and plans in place for the aftermath of the strikes.“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis, and a viable thought-through plan,” he said
Welsh Labour leader begins party’s uphill battle for Senedd victory
The leader of Welsh Labour, Eluned Morgan, has said her party is a patriotic protector of her country as she tries to fend off the twin threats of Plaid Cymru from the left and Reform UK from the right.Launching Welsh Labour’s Senedd election campaign, the first minister said: “Welsh Labour will always be proud to be patriots and to stand up for our country. I’ve always been a patriot. It is absolutely central to my core political beliefs.”Morgan chose the market in Newport, south-east Wales, as the venue for the campaign launch and invoked the spirit of the Chartists, who marched there in 1839 to demand democratic reform
UK to allow US to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iran
The UK has agreed to let the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, Keir Starmer has said.The UK has so far not been involved in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, but in a recorded statement on Sunday evening, the prime minister said that Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use two of its military bases.Within hours of the prime minister’s statement, the UK’s Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone, with only “minor damage” and no casualties.The government also released a summary of its legal position, saying: “The UK is acting in the collective self-defence of regional allies who have requested support.”Revealing that 200,000 British people are in Middle Eastern countries being targeted by Iran, Starmer said: “The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles
Starmer faces greater quandary over ‘special relationship’ after Iran attack
It was perhaps naive of No 10 ever to position Keir Starmer as a “Donald Trump whisperer” capable of persuading the unpredictable US president to step back from reckless decisions.The “special relationship” has been under severe strain in recent months over the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and the refusal of European countries to back Trump’s play for Greenland.When it came to bombing Iran and assassinating its leader, Starmer appears to have had little influence on Trump, who went ahead regardless of the UK’s refusal to let the US use its military bases.The prime minister now finds himself in the diplomatically precarious position of declining to endorse the strikes – which have won support from Canada and Australia – but also refusing to condemn them as many in his party would like to see him do.At the moment, the UK’s fence-sitting stance is that it played no part in the initial strikes, but will now allow the US to use its military bases to launch attacks that destroy Iranian missiles that would be launched into other Gulf states
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