BrewDog snubs the establishment with £25m fundraising project

BrewDog, the independent Scottish craft beer maker, has launched Britain’s biggest crowdfunding project – attempting to raise up to £25m from enthusiasts in a campaign that blames traditional financiers for ruining British beer.

The Aberdeenshire-based brewer is asking customers and fans to buy shares in the company, with a minimum investment of £95 for two shares. It wants to use the money to increase capacity at its brewery and expand its chain of bars in the UK and overseas.

James Watt, BrewDog’s co-founder, said: “We are not the Rockefellers. We are Guy Fawkes. This is about changing small business finance for ever.

“By making profit king, the financial institutions of the City gave rise to the bastardisation and commoditisation of beer. We are burning the established system down to the ground and forging a new future for business from the flames.”

Watt and his co-founder Martin Dickie claimed to represent “the misfits, the independents, the libertines” rather than the business establishment, by spreading ownership of the company to its customers.

BrewDog is selling the shares through its own “Equity for Punks” platform instead of through an equity crowdfunding site such as Crowdcube. It would be more than five times bigger than BrewDog’s £4.25m fundraising in 2013 and the biggest crowdfunded share sale in the UK.

Watt and Dickie launched BrewDog in 2007 with secondhand equipment and now employ more than 360 people. The company exports its beers to 55 countries and has opened 27 bars worldwide since 2010. Last year, sales rose 64% to £29.6m and the company expects sales of more than £50m this year.

BrewDog’s investment scheme, accredited by the UK Listing Authority, will offer 526,316 shares in the brewery. It will use the money to build a new brewery with three times the capacity of its existing site in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

The company, which pays the living wage, has also pledged to invest up to £2m in environmental technology. In exchange for their cash, investors will get a stake in the business and perks such as discounts online and at BrewDog bars and a complimentary beer on their birthday.

BrewDog has ridden the wave of enthusiasm for craft ales, which have taken off to the extent that the Office for National Statistics added them to the basket of goods it uses to calculate inflation.

Even as pubs have continued to close at a rate of about 30 a week, the number of UK independent brewers has increased to more than 1,400 – the highest number since the second world war.

Equity crowdfunding has grown rapidly since the financial crisis as a way for small companies or startups to bypass banks for funding, often from enthusiasts for the product. However, the Financial Conduct Authority classifies equity crowdfunding as a risky investment because most small businesses fail.