James Watt to invest £10m into rescue bid for BrewDog: James Watt, the co-founder and former chief executive of Scottish brewer and retailer BrewDog, is to plough £10m of his own money into a rescue bid for the struggling craft brewer and retailer. Sky News reports that Watt, who stepped down as BrewDog’s chief executive in 2024, is assembling financial backing from external investors for the group. Insiders said he had told prospective partners that he would commit roughly £10m of his personal wealth to a bid. The Times reports that Watt is understood to have secured private equity backing for a deal that would retain some of the company’s pubs as well as BrewDog’s manufacturing base in Ellon, Scotland, where it employs hundreds of people. Under proposals that are understood to have been discussed, about a fifth of the company that is currently owned by retail investors could be carried over, with Watt holding about half the firm and his backers the rest. Propel revealed last month that Watt, who co-founded BrewDog with Martin Dickie in 2007, was considering launching a bid to buy back the business. Propel revealed earlier this week that first round bids for the whole or parts of BrewDog had already been submitted, with a deal or deals needed to be done by the end of this month. The Scottish brewer and retailer called in advisers at AlixPartners to oversee a sale that could trigger a break-up of the business earlier this month. It comes after Rothschild is understood to have carried out a sales process for the whole of the BrewDog business at the turn of the year. Propel understands that HSBC are behind the sale process, holding debt of circa £80m with BrewDog. Some industry sources have suggested that a sale price may not even clear the £213m investment US private equity firm TSG made in the business in 2017. It is understood that any deal for the whole or parts of BrewDog, be that its brewing arm, brands or bars, will be through a restructuring process. It is a move that could mean neither the company’s founders, TSG or circa 220,000 individual shareholders – see any return on their remaining shares – Dickie and Watt earned a reported circa £50m each when TSG made its original investment. It is thought that final offers for BrewDog are due in the coming days. A number of multinational brewers are expected to be in the mix to buy the brewery assets and BrewDog’s brands, but that there has been less interest in the group’s circa 70-strong bar estate. It is thought that only circa 25 of the bars make positive site Ebitda. It is thought some operators are keen to cherry pick from the pub/bar estate, with the acquisitive Urban Pubs & Bars, the London pub operator founded by Malc Heap and Nick Pring and backed by Davidson Kempner and Global Mutual, thought to have shown an interest in some of BrewDog’s sites in the capital.

Premium Club subscribers receive updated Who’s Who of UK Hospitality: Premium Club subscribers received the updated Who’s Who of UK Hospitality database yesterday (Friday, 20 February), at noon. The database features 56 new companies. The database now features a total of 1,430 companies, this month includes 196 updated entries. It is updated each month and merges Companies House information, interviews and other public information to provide an easy to reference and exhaustive guide to the sector. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five other databases: the New Openings Database, the Multi-Site Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database and the Turnover & Profits Blue Book. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.