BrewDog’s ‘Equity for Punks’ fuelled its rapid rise – but may have contributed to its struggles
Professor Ross Brown receives funding from the ESRC under grant number ES/W010259/1 for the project " Understanding how constraints on access to finance and under-investment impact on productivity growth in smaller firms".
Craft brewer and pub chain BrewDog recently closed some of its pubs in a push to cut operating costs. Given it is partly owned by private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, the loss-making firm is likely to face further organisational upheaval. After all, private equity firms generally specialise in cutting costs and selling assets.
This downsizing is indicative of the widespread demise of the on-trade beer market (that is, venues that sell beer for consumption on site). The sector is seeing six pubs close down in the UK each week.
It is also testament to the importance of a good finance mix and how this affects a firm’s evolution. Throughout BrewDog’s turbulent history the firm has rarely been out of the headlines, beginning when it launched its in-house equity crowdfunding model.
