BrewDog co-founder steps down as chief executive after 17 years

BrewDog’s chief executive, who turned the brewer he co-founded into the UK’s biggest craft beer brand but was accused of overseeing a “toxic” workplace culture, has stepped down after 17 years.

James Watt, who started the brand alongside Martin Dickie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, at the age of 24, will be replaced by the company’s chief operating officer, James Arrow.

Watt said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday that he would stay on as a board member and keep his shares in the company.

“During my time at the helm of BrewDog, there have been highs and lows, up and downs, crazy successes and incredibly hard challenges,” Watt wrote in the post.

BrewDog’s chair and former Asda boss Allan Leighton said Watt had informed him of his intention to step back from the business last year.

“We subsequently put in place a succession plan by recruiting James Arrow as COO and strengthening the wider senior leadership team,” Leighton said in a statement, adding that Arrow was a “proven leader”.

BrewDog, now the UK’s biggest craft beer brewer, was one of the greatest success stories of the sector’s boom, raising more than £80mn through an army of small crowdfunding investors — who the company called “equity punks”.

However, in 2021 a group of former staff condemned the company’s “culture of fear” and misogyny in an open letter. The 60 signatories claimed the brewer pursued “growth at all costs”, fostered a “toxic” attitude to junior staff and failed to address complaints.

Watt initially pushed back against the claims before acknowledging changes were needed.

“I think it’s 100 per cent fair to say that in the hyper high-growth years, from 2015 to 2018, we could have done more to look after our people,” he said in a 2022 interview with the FT. “I apologise to team members who we let down.”

This January the brewer received another blow to its reputation as an employer when it abandoned a pledge to pay all staff the voluntary living wage.

New staff members will be hired at the statutory minimum wage rate, rather than the higher rates set by the Living Wage Foundation that junior recruits are currently paid.

In a letter to staff at the time, the brewer said “hard decisions” were necessary to restore profitability after a year of “immense challenges”.