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BrewDog will close 10 bars, including its flagship location in Aberdeen, amid an “extremely difficult” environment for pubs and restaurants.
James Taylor, the chief executive of the brewer, told staff in an email that it was no longer viable to keep the bars open. They are in Aberdeen, Brighton, Camden, Dundee, Leeds North Street, Oxford, Sheffield, Shepherd’s Bush, Shoreditch and York.
Taylor, who took over as chief executive less than five months ago, said that “despite our best efforts”, it was not able to make the bars viable “due to their size, location and other limiting factors”.
He wrote: “Following much consideration, we have sadly concluded that there is no realistic prospect of making these venues commercially viable,.” The bars are due to close on Saturday.
“Keeping them open would put pressure on the wider business, making it harder to invest where we know we can grow. This decision is not simply a response to the challenging UK hospitality market, but a proactive decision to redefine the bar division’s focus.”
BrewDog, which is based in Aberdeenshire, said it employed more than 3,000 people worldwide in 2023 after a period of significant expansion.
The business was founded as a “punk” challenger brand by the entrepreneurs James Watt and Martin Dickie in 2006 in Dickie’s mum’s garage in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, and has expanded to supply beer to supermarkets, open bars and open hotels.
The company declined to comment on how many staff could be affected by the closures but said it was going through a “meaningful and appropriate consultation process” with everyone affected. This process will last at least two weeks, it said, with one-to-one meetings for every person at risk of losing their job.
A spokesperson for BrewDog said: “We are working hard to minimise the impact on our people, and we expect to redeploy many affected team members across the BrewDog network.”
News of the closures comes as the hospitality sector faces growing cost pressures, with higher national insurance contributions and increases to the living wage.
The hotel and pub chain Oakman Inns recently went into administration, according to reports. The Hertfordshire-based chain has closed six sites, resulting in 159 job losses, its administrator, PwC, told the BBC.
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Taylor is the second chief executive at BrewDog within the space of a year after the former boss James Arrow left the business for “personal reasons” in March. Taylor had been the chief financial officer at the company since 2023. Watt stepped down as its boss last year.
The latest accounts for BrewDog showed revenue had grown from £321m to £355m in the year ending in 2023. However, higher costs and write-downs on underperforming bars meant that pre-tax losses widened from £30m to £59.2m.
The squeeze on the hospitality industry has hit pubs hard. More than 400 pubs in England and Wales closed last year, with the overall number falling below 39,000 for the first time.
