For years, BrewDog sold rebellion by the bottle. But the company’s latest chapter is less about punk attitude and more about rebuilding trust.

After years of losses, workplace controversies and the departure of founder James Watt, BrewDog collapsed into administration before being bought by US drinks and cannabis company Tilray for £33m in March. Now, Tilray is putting more than £50m into an ambitious rescue operation—targeting the beer, breweries, pubs and working culture that helped define the brand.

Tilray chief executive Irwin Simon is asking customers to give BrewDog what he calls a “second chance.”

And this time, the message is deliberately different: the brand is bigger than its founder.

From rebellion to reconstruction

BrewDog once built its identity around challenging the mainstream. But the company eventually found itself fighting battles far beyond the beer aisle.

In 2021, employees publicly criticised what they described as a toxic workplace culture. Watt apologised for some of his behaviour and left the business in 2024. Meanwhile, mounting losses pushed the brewer into administration, leaving creditors owed roughly £190m facing substantial losses.

Tilray’s acquisition changed the ownership—but not overnight the public perception.

More than 200,000 crowdfunding investors saw their shares wiped out when Tilray bought the brand, intellectual property, UK breweries and 11 bars. Yet the new owners have retained some benefits for those investors, including discounted beer.

£50m bet on better beer

Tilray says the comeback has to begin with the product itself.

Investment is being directed towards BrewDog’s Aberdeenshire brewery, with the aim of improving consistency and reliability. Simon revealed that more than £1m worth of beer had been discarded because it failed to meet quality standards.

New beers are also being developed, while some of Tilray’s American craft beers have already appeared in BrewDog bars.

The strategy is not simply to make BrewDog bigger. It is to make it better—and, in Tilray’s view, commercially sustainable.

The pubs are coming back—but selectively

The administration resulted in the closure of 38 BrewDog bars, costing around 440 jobs.

Tilray initially acquired only 11 locations from the chain, but has since reopened five more.

Simon says additional openings are possible, although the new owners intend to concentrate on prime locations rather than repeating the expansion strategy that preceded the collapse.

That represents a significant shift: fewer locations, stronger sites and tighter control.

Can the brand outlive its founder?

Perhaps the most revealing part of Tilray’s strategy is its attempt to separate BrewDog from James Watt.

Recent advertising has used lines such as “No More Cunning Stunts. Just Great Beer” and “A Little Less Allegation”, clearly signalling a break with the company’s controversial past.

Simon insists the future should be about the collective rather than an individual:

“The name of the brand is BrewDog; it is not anyone’s name.”

The coming campaign, built around “choose craft”, will put that new identity to the test.

A £2bn ambition

Tilray believes BrewDog can eventually return to annual sales of around £350m, compared with approximately £225m currently, and become profitable again.

Simon has even suggested that the business could eventually be worth as much as £2bn.

But the numbers alone will not determine whether the comeback succeeds.

BrewDog’s real challenge is rebuilding something harder to measure: trust.

The new owners can spend millions on breweries, reopen pubs and introduce new beers. But customers and former employees will ultimately judge the revival by whether the company’s behaviour genuinely matches its new promises.

BrewDog spent years telling consumers to challenge convention.

Now its biggest challenge may be convincing them that the company itself has changed.