ONE of the UK’s largest bar chain bosses has revealed that they axed the Scottish beer brand BrewDog from its pubs because the brand is becoming "irrelevant".
Last week, it was revealed that BrewDog’s beers had been axed by almost 2000 pubs across the UK.
The figures were revealed to The Telegraph by an industry insider using confidential pub industry data and claims the Scottish firm is losing to rival brands like Camden Town and Beavertown “like you wouldn’t believe”.
It follows BrewDog’s decision last month to close 10 bars across the UK with almost 100 jobs reportedly at risk.
Loungers, a 300-strong bar chain with pubs in some of the largest towns and cities across the UK, said it decided to remove BrewDog’s products, including its flagship Punk IPA, as they were no longer popular with customers.
Alex Reilley, Loungers’ chairman, said scrapping the brand two years ago was a “fairly easy decision”.
He told The Telegraph: “We generally have a tender process every two or three years. If we’re going to commit to another two or three years of a particular brand, are we confident that it will still be relevant?
“At the end of that period of time with BrewDog, it was a fairly easy decision for us. We took the view that the brand was beginning to waver and we’ve always felt that we want to be proactive about things like that, as opposed to reactive.”
BrewDog said the loss of distribution was due to pub groups choosing to stock fewer beers from a smaller number of larger drinks companies in a bid to protect margins.
The firm also said that pub groups, which are owned by breweries, are prioritising their own brands instead.
Reilley added: “I know the team there now are trying desperately hard to battle against the perception that people still have about BrewDog, and the best of luck to them.
“It’s going to be a tough battle. I do think the brand is probably going to really struggle to establish the kind of relevance it probably had 10 years ago.”
Last year, The National reported that BrewDog lost £59 million in 2023, according to the company’s latest accounts. It was the fourth year in a row the firm posted pre-tax losses.
While it recorded losses of £12.5m in 2020, £9.4m in 2021, and £30.5m in 2022, last year’s losses are more than those three years combined.
Lauren Caroll, BrewDog’s chief operating officer, said: “Independent brewers across the board have felt the squeeze from the economic pressures hitting the pub trade.
“With costs rising and consumers watching their spend, pub groups have been narrowing their ranges, and brewery-owned pubs are putting more emphasis on their own brands.
“It’s not just us – every independent brewer has been affected. We saw the trend coming, which is why we’ve shifted focus to high-impact channels like festivals, stadiums, and independent [pubs].”
James Taylor, BrewDog's current chief executive, has overseen a major rebrand of the drinks firm, which has seen a move into big sports sponsorships with the likes of Lord’s cricket ground, London Broncos and West Ham United.
Taylor said: “We would love to have our beers back in those businesses that have historically taken us out.
“Our beers taste great, the public love them and this is a different business to when they [were removed].“
