Aberdeenshire entrepreneur James Watt is planning a return to the beer industry with a new venture called Second Best, following the collapse and sale of BrewDog earlier this year.
According to the Financial Times, the new company would focus primarily on canned beer rather than building a large pub estate, although Watt said a small number of specialist beer-focused bars could still be part of the plans.
He will be giving shares in the new venture to former “Equity Punk” investors who lost out in BrewDog’s pre-pack administration sale.
“I feel an obligation to the Equity Punk investors,” Watt told the FT.
“I want to try to create the future of beer. Hopefully the second beer business I build with the community will be the best one.”
The plans come just months after BrewDog’s brands, brewing facilities and part of its pub portfolio were acquired by Tilray Brands for £33 million. The deal resulted in the immediate closure of 38 pubs and almost 500 job losses.
The sale marked a dramatic reversal for BrewDog, which had once been valued at around £1 billion and became one of the UK’s best-known craft beer success stories after launching near Aberdeen in 2007.
However, the business had struggled in recent years amid rising losses, increased competition and the long-term impact of Covid-era pub closures.
Thousands of retail investors who backed BrewDog through its “Equity for Punks” crowdfunding scheme were left empty-handed following the rescue deal.
Watt later said on LinkedIn he was “heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted.”
Watt said he is self-financing the plans for Second Best and has not yet confirmed an official launch date, adding that the company is still in the process of securing the licences needed to begin trading.