Reflections From A Difficult Fortnight

Hey Everyone,

I’ve spent time reflecting on the BBC Scotland documentary and I wanted to share my thoughts on moving forward. Before I start, I want to say once again how proud I am of our team, of our business and how excited I am about our future. I’d also like to thank all of you who have been in touch privately over the last week – your messages of support have meant a lot. I remain fully committed to ensuring that BrewDog is the best place it can possibly be.

We knew full well the documentary was never going to be anything other than the ‘malicious hatchet job’ our legal counsel described it as. Watching it, alone, in my office was savage. This was simply not the BrewDog I know and love. It was a malicious caricature, based largely on untruths. I utterly refute the characterisation of me as well.

The most direct claim against me was that I stared at someone. But it was laced it with so much innuendo and smear that they got their desired effect and now, thousands of people, all over social media, were calling me some of the worst things imaginable.

For the last 8 months the waves of attack on our business have been pretty relentless. I feel terrible for our team to have to endure this for most of the last year. For that, I am sorry to our team and our community. ?

From a personal perspective, to have the world at large falsely accuse you of terrible things is soul destroying. I am really concerned about the impact that this documentary has already had on our fantastic people. I am crushed by how this program has impacted my family. And the abuse our social media and our customer service teams have received is simply extraordinary. To them I apologise and thank them for their stoicism in the face of this storm.?

I am not for a second saying I am perfect. And furthermore, as a business we are far from perfect. We make mistakes, we learn, we move forward.

But by broadcasting what they did, BBC Scotland acted as judge, jury and executioner. The programme was so intent on creating a sensationalist story that they largely took normal things and portrayed them as nefarious. This is not how justice or how fair, balanced and responsible reporting are supposed to work.

The programme attacked me for taking people on brewery tours. I often take friends, colleagues, business partners, and yes, sometimes dates, on brewery tours. In Columbus, we designed and built from scratch one of the world’s most beautiful breweries. It is something I am very proud of and I love to share it with as many people as I can. Yet here I was getting torn to pieces on national TV for dating and giving tours of the brewery we built. The 'staring' allegation made by one person is simply ridiculous.

The programme also claimed that some people felt uncomfortable around me. If that has been the case, then of course and I deeply regret that they did, that was never my intention and the last thing I would want. I am trying hard to be more mindful of the impact I have on our team. Furthermore, I have been in touch with the entire team to let them know if anyone wants to speak to me directly about how I can have a more positive impact across our business please reach out and I am very open to the conversation and the feedback.

Onward

Martin and I have built this business from scratch, starting off in Martin’s mum’s garage. Aside from my daughters, this business is by far the most important thing in my life. I feel deeply responsible for all the amazing 2,400 people that work at BrewDog.

It is my priority to ensure we build the best business possible for the benefit of our team, our customers and our shareholders. We have made some important strides here but we still have further to go.

We are going to continue with the action plan that we built from the Wiser Independent Culture Review.?We are 100% committed, as per our workplace code, to ensuring absolutely everyone who works at BrewDog feels safe and comfortable in their place of work. In 2021 we also launched an independently managed anonymous ethics hotline, created an Employee Representative Group, launched our new Workplace Code and appointed an Independent Chairman. Furthermore, with the feedback from our teams we now have a clear roadmap for further improvements going forward. I have decided we will repeat this exercise to make sure we are delivering on our promises and we can show genuine progression.

More specifically, I am also making myself available to speak to any team member that wants to chat about anything related to the documentary. I have told all our crew that anyone who wants to speak to me about the documentary or anything else, I will be available and open to have that conversation and listen to the feedback.?

Finally, we are lodging an official complaint with the BBC and the regulator Ofcom for the dozens of inaccuracies and false claims contained in the programme. We cannot simply stay quiet and allow these to go unchallenged – that isn’t the BrewDog way.

Hopefully, by the end of 2022 I can look back on how what has been the most challenging 2 weeks of my life turned out to be a catalyst for creating an even better future for the team and our business.

Hold Fast,

James