The BrewDog bar at 19 Dickens Yard in Ealing Broadway has closed down, one of 38 venues to shut after the chain’s UK and Irish business was sold to US medical cannabis and drinks group Tilray Brands. The Ealing site, which opened in April 2021, was among those not included in the deal.
The £33m transaction covers BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK brewing operations and 11 “strategic” bars, administrators said. The remaining venues were excluded from the sale, resulting in 484 redundancies, while 733 jobs will be retained across the sites transferring to the new owner.
Restructuring specialist AlixPartners, appointed as administrator, said: “No offer was made at any stage of the sales process, from any prospective bidder, which would have preserved BrewDog in its entirety.”
Unite criticised the handling of the sale. The union said: “Nearly 500 livelihoods have been wiped out while yet another corporate deal is stitched together behind closed doors.” It added: “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.”
Tilray said it would refocus BrewDog on “the craft beer excellence that made it beloved in the first place” and invest in returning the business to profitability.
Once a flagship name in the UK craft beer boom, the company has faced mounting financial pressures in recent years. Investors who backed it through its “Equity for Punks” crowdfunding scheme are expected to see little or no return from the sale.
