Wed 8th May 2024 - James Watt to stand down as BrewDog CEO James Watt to stand down as BrewDog CEO: James Watt, who co-founded Scottish brewer and bar operator BrewDog 17 years ago, is to step down as its chief executive, with James Arrow, who joined the business as its chief operating officer last summer, stepping up to take his place. Watt, who co-founded BrewDog with Martin Dickie, said he will remain on the company’s board in the new role as “captain and co-founder”. Arrow joined BrewDog from Boots Opticians, where he was managing director. Under Arrow’s leadership, profits for Boots Opticians almost doubled, and in 2022, he led a team that launched a new brand identity alongside a prominent public health campaign. Prior to joining Boots Opticians in 2019, he spent more than a decade at Dixons Carphone in a variety of senior roles including e-commerce, trading, operations, sales and transformation. During the merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse, Arrow was part of the senior leadership integration team. Watt said: “Seventeen years ago, Martin and I founded BrewDog in Martin’s mum’s garage. With two humans and one dog we set out on a bold mission to make other people as passionate about great beer as we are. Little could I have imagined that this journey would see us build the world’s leading craft beer business, operate in more than 70 countries, create a unicorn, ship more than one billion cans of beer and be fortunate enough to work with such amazing people every single day. As a team we have won gold medals at the world beer cup, opened showstopping locations all over the planet, turned the beer industry on its head, continually taken a stand for the things we believe in, created thousands of jobs, broken crowdfunding records and continually strived to build the best company we possibly could. For almost two decades pretty much every second of my waking existence has been focused on this amazing business. Being able to co-found and then lead BrewDog and our fantastic team has been the greatest privilege and the best adventure I could ever have wished for. After 17 fantastic years as chief executive, I have decided to transition into a new role in the business, one of ‘captain and co-founder’ – and James Arrow will pick up the reins as chief executive as our business pushes forward into our next phase of growth. In my new role I will remain as a board member, a director and I will also be part time strategic advisor to the business and our to leadership team. Furthermore, I will retain my BrewDog shareholding and my Hop Stock initiative whereby I give 20% of my BrewDog shares to the team will remain in place. During my time at the helm of BrewDog, there have been highs and lows, up and downs, crazy successes and incredibly hard challenges. When I look back on the last 17 years (119 dog years) my overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude. Gratitude to have been able to build the world’s leading craft beer brand, from scratch. Gratitude to have been able to work with such amazing people all over our business including our fantastic community. I am eternally thankful for all the brilliant beers, all the standout batches of Jack Hammer and all the wild adventures we have been on as a team. I am also grateful for the tough times too, for the learnings they provided, the resolve they instilled and the perspective they offered. In terms of the next chapter for myself, I wanted to share with you my plans going forward: continuing to help BrewDog build an amazing business; some time off for travelling and adventures; spending more time with family and loved ones; continuing to help nurture fantastic start-ups; and in due course, starting a few new ventures of my own. As for BrewDog going forward, I am really excited to see the next phase of our growth. We have great momentum in our most important sales channels and our team, at all levels of the business, is in incredibly good shape.” BrewDog posted turnover of £321.2m in the year to the end of 2022, up 13% on the previous year. Last summer, BrewDog announced plans to expand its global bar estate, targeting 300 bars by 2030. The company currently operates more than 100 bars and hotels across the world. James Brown, managing director of BrewDog Bars, will be among the speakers at the Excellence in Pub & Bar Retailing Conference. The all-day conference takes place on Tuesday, 14 May at One Moorgate Place in London and this is the last week to book. Brown will discuss building temples to craft beer in the UK and internationally, evolving the group's model and its approach to hiring, training and retaining staff. For the full speaker schedule, click here. Tickets are £295 plus VAT for operators and £395 plus VAT for suppliers. There is a 20% discount for operators and suppliers who are Premium Club members. Email: kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to book places.