James Watt and Martin Dickie built a multinational $2 billion beer empire from a Scottish shed. To survive, they are pivoting toward higher margin, beer-centric businesses.
BrewDog cofounder James Watt stood onstage in front of 4,000 of his shareholders to deliver some news.
But behind those impressive numbers is a challenge: BrewDog is much bigger than the majority of America’s 7,500 craft breweries, most of which make less than 1,000 barrels of beer a year. But it’s a minnow compared to mega-brewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev, which had 2018 revenues of $55 billion and controls more than 26% of the global beer market, according to research firm Euromonitor. It also pales in comparison to Heineken, which sold $25 billion worth of suds in 2018.
Dickie took a more measured approach. At age 12, he found a brewing kit in his parent’s attic and, alongside his dad, began to experiment with different fresh hops. He joined Watt at the University of Edinburgh to study distilling and after graduating in 2004, he went to work as a brewer at Thornbridge Brewery in England. When Watt would periodically visit, the two would brew their own concoctions, mainly American style IPAs and high-alcohol imperial stouts.
“We had to both move back in with our parents, because we couldn't afford to pay ourselves, which was fun at 24. And we did everything, the two of us, from filling bottles by hand to sleeping on sacks of malt on the floor,” Watt says. Early investors have done well. Daniel Fetter, a nurse in Nashville, Tennessee, initially invested $10,000 in the first Equity for Punks round in 2010. Today, he says the investment is worth about $100,000 - a return of over 900% . But those oversized returns are likely a thing of the past. Jonny Forsyth, an analyst at London-based market research firm Mintel, says there are now so many equity punks that dilution will make it hard for new investors to see a huge profit.its first venture funding.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Phishing scam costs school district $2.3M, FBI and police are investigatingA school district in Manor, Texas, was caught in a phishing email scam that cost $2.3 million in losses within two months, officials said. Investigators with the Manor Police Department and the FBI are following 'strong leads' to figure out how a massive amount of money was sucked out of the
Read more »
Rich The Kid, NBA YoungBoy Floss New Bling Ahead of New AlbumRich the Kid and NBA YoungBoy make album collaboration official with new chains.
Read more »
Six Finalists for Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge RevealedThe jury will award 150,000 euros between two winners to fund advancement of their business proposals.
Read more »
Mnuchin says Boeing 737 Max crisis could slow US growth by a half point in 2020The fallout from the two fatal 737 Max crashes has cut more than $50 billion from Boeing's market value and has cost airlines more than $1 billion.
Read more »
Pricey 'American Dream' mall places big bet on retail'Big Snow' is North America's first indoor ski facility and part of a $5 billion mega-mall in the state of New Jersey
Read more »