BrewDog had no cash left to pay employees after we purchased it, say new house owners as they attempt to cheer out-of-pocket small buyers by providing beer on their birthday

BrewDog had no money left to pay its staff when it was rescued from collapse, its new owners have claimed, as they try to cheer up small ‘punk’ investors by keeping perks such as offering free beer on their birthday.

Scottish brewery BrewDog, which was once estimated to be worth £2billion, was sold to US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for just £33million earlier this month.

It was in such dire financial straits that it had next to no funds and would have been unable to pay staff if it had not been purchased, Tilray’s Chief Executive Irwin Simon has claimed.

The firm, which is best known for its range of medical cannabis but has also branched out into beer and energy drinks, has taken over the struggling business at a ‘bargain’ price. 

As part of the purchase, a total of 38 UK bars were closed, as BrewDog’s chief executive James Taylor told 484 staff members in a conference call that they were no longer employed.

Just 11 of the UK’s best performing venues will remain, with Tilray also taking over the brand’s brewery in Ellon, Scotland.

Speaking to industry magazine The Grocer, Mr Irwin said it would take a ‘tonne of money’ to kickstart the business again, adding: ‘Day one, there was no money left. There was no payroll to pay employees.’

He added that vendors were also at risk of pulling out of the business if bills were not settled. 

It comes after it emerged that shares owned by the 220,000 ‘equity punks’ who invested some £75million in the company over seven funding rounds are now practically worthless.

Those who invested were promised a range of perks including discounts on beer, and an invite to BrewDog’s annual AGM, or Annual General Mayhem, event.

The loss of return on their investment is a sore point for many BrewDog fans, after that Mr Watt and Mr Dickie were said to have shared in a reported £100million payday when they sold 22 per cent of the firm to US investment firm TSG Partners.

The 2017 deal gave TSG ‘preferential’ shares that entitled them to a return on their investment in the event the company was sold – over and above other investors, including the so-called ‘equity punks’ that are now unlikely to get any money back.

An email sent to investors following Tilray’s takeover, seen by the Daily Mail, thanked amateur investors for contributions and said they would continue to receive benefits.

In a bid to comfort investors, it is understood that existing perks including a free beer on their birthday and discounts to customers with permanent tattoos of the company’s logo will continue.

Mr Simon told how he had previously looked at taking on BrewDog but earlier valuations of the firm were simply too expensive.

Ahead of a possible stock market floatation, it was said BrewDog was worth up to £2billion.

‘I’m good at maths but the numbers never, ever, added up to me on those valuations. It was easy to say, “No, I’m not interested”.’ 

But concerns about BrewDog’s viability remain. A source told the Grocer they ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if punk investors went as far as to boycott the company, leaving it with little revenue and chance of a turnaround.

‘I suspect the worst is still to come for this brand,’ they added.

Another blow for BrewDog came on Wednesday after it emerged the firm would be dropped as a beer supplier at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

The venue known as the ‘Home Of Cricket’, in St John’s Wood in north-west London, ended the contract with the self-styled ‘punk’ beer brand after only a year.

Lord’s owners previously described the deal with BrewDog in November 2024 as the ‘first of a kind’, saying it would make BrewDog ‘official beer supplier of Lord’s for the next four years’.

But now the partnership has ended, as confirmed by Robert Lawson, chief executive and secretary of Lord’s owner Marylebone Cricket Club, in a letter to MCC members.

Brewdog’s millionaire co-founder James Watt, married to I’m A Celebrity and Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, earlier this month posted a statement on social media in which he expressed contrition over the company’s downfall.

Describing the previous week as ‘incredibly hard’, he wrote: ‘I am heartbroken for all of the hard working and passionate team members who have lost their jobs. 

‘I am heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted. 

‘And heartbroken to have dedicated the best 20 years of my life to something that ultimately did not have the ending we all wished for.’

Mr Watt – who stepped back from the role of CEO in 2024 amid allegations of a toxic culture within BrewDog – said he would have ‘loved to save every single job and every single equity punk investment’ but ‘couldn’t‘, adding: ‘That will stay with me.’

The businessman, who co-founded Brewdog in 2007 with schoolfriend Martin Dickie, added that ‘with the benefit of hindsight’ the firm had expanded too quickly and diversified too widely.

He also said he had not responded to PR crises in a way that was ‘authentic and true to who I am’.

‘I am sorry that I was not able to repay the faith you bestowed in me with the outcome you all deserved,’ he signed off the post.

Yesterday, his wife Georgia Toffolo was seen enjoying herself with an alcohol-free Guinness at Cheltenham Festival.

BrewDog grew from a small beer brewing business founded by Watt and Dickie in 2007 to the world’s leading craft beer brand at its peak in the late 2010s.

However, it was plagued by a series of public relations misfires and allegations of a toxic working culture and inappropriate behaviour by Mr Watt, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing over the years.

In 2022, a BBC documentary aired claims that he had kissed a drunk customer and that female staff were given advice on how to avoid unwelcome attention from him on visits to bars.

Mr Watt later apologised for making anyone feel ‘uncomfortable’ but hired private detectives to investigate those who had raised concerns and went to regulator Ofcom challenging the programme’s claims. It upheld none of his complaints. 

BrewDog has four breweries – its main headquarters in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Columbus, Ohio, in the US, Brisbane in Australia; and German capital Berlin.

The firm recently told investors its international businesses were ‘being reviewed’ – but the Berliner Morgenpost has reported that the German arm of the business is likely to be liquidated. It closed one Berlin bar last month.