BrewDog's 2020

During my time on the North Atlantic we faced many storms. But, I have never quite seen anything as difficult as the last 12 months in this business. 2020 was without a doubt the toughest year in BrewDog’s 13 year history as C-19 descended our world into a chaos that would have been completely unimaginable at the start of the new decade.

We lost almost 70% of our revenue overnight, almost all of our 100 retail locations were closed, most of our export markets stopped ordering and many customers could not afford to pay us leading to severe cash flow concerns.

On March 18th I broke down in tears addressing our team about the severity of the situation. At that moment in time, despite trying and failing miserably to put a brave face on it, I simply did not think we were going to make it through. I bought an airbed online and put it in my office. If the ship was going down, I was going down with it. 

Remarkably, and only due to an incredible effort from our amazing people, we have made it through the storm so far. We have not only managed to survive, but also to show that business can be a force for good.

The last 12 months were just like being a start up again. High highs, low lows and incredibly high stakes. In a start-up you also make big bets, you put everything on the line for what you believe in and then you do it over and over again. We had to do that throughout 2020.

Here are some key stats for BrewDog in 2020: 

• We grew our overall revenues by 10%.
• This was despite the fast the vast majority of our 100 bars were closed for most of the year.
• We were profitable.
• We grew our E-commerce volumes by 1080%.
• We were ranked the world’s 19th most valuable beer brand.
• We shipped the equivalent of 250 million cans of beer.
• We grew our Equity Punk community to over 200,000
• We became the world’s first carbon negative brewery.

Here are 5 reasons why we are very excited about 2021:

Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, we became the world’s first and only carbon negative brewery as we decided to put absolutely everything on the line to try and set a new standard in sustainability and lead the way on saving our planet. We worked with world renowned export Professor Mike Berners-Lee as we built a strategy to reduce our emissions overall and ensure that as a business we have a positive impact on the planet. 

Big business has pushed our planet to the brink. We want to show that business can also help save our planet by inspiring others to join us on this path. 

Secondly, we have significantly strengthened our brand and reputation in 2020 and we are now a fully certified B Corp too. We have always believed that business can be a force for good and 2020 was a time when we simply had to step up to the plate and showcase that through our C-19 response projects such as free hand sanitiser for the NHS (we donated over 500,000 bottles), Help For NHS Heroes and Barnard Castle Eye Test which helped our country get through a tough time.

Our new packaging and branding has been extremely well received and is a timely evolution of our positioning as we look forward to the next few years. The high impact launches of Hazy Jane & Lost Lager also landed extremely well across all of our major customers. Lost Lager, which is the world’s only carbon negative lager, is a key part of our focus for 2021 as we look to take the fight to big beer.

We are also delighted to now be a B Corp. B Corps are a global community of businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social & environmental performance & public transparency to help build a better world. They are the future of business.

Thirdly, as we move into 2021 our team, galvanised in the fire and adversity of the last 9 months, is also stronger than it has ever been. At every level of our business we have amazingly bright and passionate people who love good beer and our passionate about our mission. Our BrewDog Salary Cap means we have to develop the next generation of leaders from within our business and we currently have some amazing people progressing through the ranks all throughout our business.

Fourthly, we are continuing to expand our retail footprint, despite the challenging conditions. It may seem like a very strange time to expand our retail business. But where others see challenges we like to see opportunities. We are currently working on 30 brand new BrewDog locations including a hotels in Manchester, Berlin & Brisbane and iconic locations in Mumbai, Amsterdam, Las Vegas Sydney, Cleveland and Milan.

And fifthly, 2020 was transformation for our E-commerce business as we grew by 1080% in a single year. We are now focussed on building out our DTC infrastructure and looking to manage more of our volume through our own E-commerce channels. By selling direct we can ensure better beer quality, less carbon emissions and better connect with our drinkers. In 2021 we are planning to continue building our DTC platform internationally and also launch an amazing new beer club, BrewDog & Friends.

Onward

The aftermath of C-19 is going to be a brave new world. The impact of the pandemic is going to accelerate the pace of chance and we will see more change in the second 6 months of 2021 than we have seen in the previous 10 years. We know customers are changing to brands with purpose, brands with solid sustainability credentials, brands with quality at their core and brands who genuinely care. Next year we will see the pace of this change accelerate.

My dad, who has spent over 60 years on the north Atlantic, always says to me that it is only in times of real adversity that you see what someone is really made of. I like to think that in 2020 we showed the world what BrewDog was really made of.

We are determined to make sure we do the same in 2021 as we look to really take the fight to big beer and set a new global benchmark in sustainability. 

Hold Fast,

James