BrewDog announces expansion plans

Scottish brewer BrewDog is set to expand amid record sales this year.

The independent brewery is set to recruit 40 new members of staff, start a graduate recruitment programme, complete a new £8 million low-carbon craft brewing facility later this summer and open three new craft beer bars in the next three months.

BrewDog expects to achieve a turnover of £12 million in 2012, an increase of £6 million in one year, and anticipates growth in domestic on-trade and off-trade sectors as well as export sales.

The company also reported that it had been unable to produce enough beer to meet demand from customers.

“The economic crisis has been our biggest catalyst for success. This is an environment for the innovators, for the misfits and the mavericks. There is a revolution happening and heads will roll. We can see the empires of old crumbling, and the winners will be the people with the passion and commitment to make great products and make their companies work no matter what,” said James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog.

“People are fed up of having the wool pulled over their eyes; of being told their beer is from Australia when it’s from Burton-on-Trent, or that it tastes better because it’s ‘extra cold’, or because it has a QR code on the can.”

In July 2011, BrewDog began a campaign to raise funds for the brewery and the expansion of its bar network by selling shares to its own craft beer fans. The “Equity for Punks” scheme saw 6,000 “fanvestors” join in under six months, raising the maximum possible total of £2.2 million.

Since the campaign finished in January, the company has opened new bars Manchester, Nottingham and Newcastle and secured sites in three more cities.