Scottish craft brewery and bar chain BrewDog is to open in Exeter – its second newly announced move into Devon.
The company, famous for its Punk IPA brand, has applied to move into an empty unit in Exeter’s Queen Street Dining. The space, part of the Guildhall Shopping Centre, has been vacant since Scandinavian restaurant KuPP closed in July 2018.
BrewDog had hinted at its interest in an Exeter location as part of its “Great BrewDog Hunt 2019” and it put out an appeal to the people of Exeter to help them find the perfect location for their bar and even offered a finders' fee of £5,000 for a bar or £10,000 for an “outpost”.
The announcement comes just a month after BrewDog said it would open in Plymouth’s £53million The Barcode city centre leisure complex.
The company will fill a 4,000sq ft unit at the complex, next to Drake Circus Shopping Centre, which is anchored by a multi-screen Cineworld cinema, though it is now closing temporarily.
A spokesperson for The Barcode said: “We don’t have an exact date for the opening but are anticipating this will be before Christmas. They are going to be taking the unit located between Zizzi and Cineworld on Level 0 of The Barcode.”
The move into Plymouth and Exeter brings BrewDog to the far South West. Previously it had nothing past Bristol.
Independent craft brewer BrewDog was founded in 2007 with the aim to revolutionise the beer industry and redefine British beer-drinking culture and was recently named the fastest growing food and drinks company in the UK.
It’s pre-pandemic sales were £214.9million, up 25%, and it recorded profits of £14.9million, up 72%.
But, like many businesses in the hospitality sector, it has been hit by coronavirus crisis and the lockdown, with about 100 of its bars forced to close.
BrewDog then made hand sanitizer, donating more than £1million worth to healthcare charities, key workers and the NHS.
James Watt, aged 37, who founded the business with Martin Dickie, aged 36, has been critical of the Government’s recent anti-virus measures and said there was no rationale for the current 10pm pub curfew.
BrewDog was valued at £1billion in 2017 when it sold a 22% stake to US private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners for £213million.
Its most recent set of accounts, released in 2019, revealed an increase in sales for Punk IPA of 16.7% to £41.6million, followed by Brewdog Elvis Juice, which made a 41.9% leap onto the market with £9.1million. Brewdog Dead Pony Club with £9 million.
KuPP closed in Exeter after going into administration less than two years after opening in the city.
