James Watt, the founder of BrewDog, has tabled a bid to buy back the UK business he founded almost 20 years ago.
Watt posted news of his offer for BrewDog, now owned by US-listed Tilray Brands, on LinkedIn.
“We have formally submitted our offer to buy BrewDog,” Watt wrote. “The offer was made by Second Best and sent to Tilray Brands.”
Watt announced plans to establish a new venture, dubbed Second Best, in May.
Three months earlier, drinks and cannabis supplier Tilray struck a series of deals to buy BrewDog assets in the UK, Ireland, the US and Australia.
Just Drinks has approached Tilray for comment.
Watt, who has said he tried to buy BrewDog before its sale to Tilray, received criticism in the wake of the US group’s acquisition of the brewer and bar operator’s assets.
Under his leadership, BrewDog’s Equity for Punks crowdfunding scheme raised money for the business, with the last fundraising round taking place in 2021.
However, according to reports, the so-called equity punk investors received no return after Tilray stepped in to buy the loss-making BrewDog.
When Watt announced he was setting up Second Best, he said he was planning to allocate up to 19.3% of the new business to the once BrewDog punk investors for free.
In today’s LinkedIn post, Watt said “43,000 equity punks have already joined the bid”.
He added: “If we succeed, every registered punk gets their BrewDog equity back for free. We’d also restore the Real Living Wage, bring back the team’s equity and put the community back at the heart of the business.
“The punks and the crew built this company and BrewDog deserves to belong to them once more.”
Watt stepped down as BrewDog CEO two years ago. Fellow co-founder Martin Dickie left the business last year. They were both shareholders at the time of the transactions with Tilray.
US private-equity firm TSG Consumer Partners owned 21% of BrewDog after investing the brewer in 2017.
“James Watt bids to buy back BrewDog” was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand.
