Brewdog founder James Watt admits mistakes as hundreds lose jobs in sale
James Watt apologises to staff and investors after hundreds of jobs were lost with the sale of the brewer and pub chain.
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Brewdog co-founder James Watt has apologised to staff and investors and admitted he made "many mistakes" after hundreds of jobs were lost following the sale of the brewer and pub chain this week.
The company's brewery and 11 bars were bought by US firm Tilray for £33m after it went into administration on Monday - but 38 other pubs closed and 484 staff have been made redundant.
Unions, staff and investors have voiced anger at how the sale of the business was handled.
In a statement posted online, Watt said it had been an "incredibly hard" week and that he was "heartbroken" for those who had lost their jobs and invested in its Equity For Punks scheme.
Watt co-founded the company in Aberdeenshire with Martin Dickie in 2007.
At the height of its success Brewdog owned four breweries and about 100 pubs around the globe and was said to be worth more than $1bn.
I was listening to Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 in my van about the Brewdog collapse. The final nail in the coffin, the NI rise cost by Labour. It wasn't ran well up until then, then the NI cost sealed their fate.
Now, the girlfriend and I went to a pub last night for a meal, it's part of a reasonable size chain. Because it's local, the girlfriend often knows at least one woman that works there. It took over half an hour for the starters to turn up, then over another half hour for the mains. By the time we were finished dessert, 2 hours had passed. As we went to pay, the lass on the till was apologising to a couple as they paid and left. Apparently over the time they had to wait etc.. So the girlfriend knew the lass and she said the staff has been cut down to 2 to serve front of house with 50 tables. The reason being is, staff cost, aka, Labours NI tax.
And the bad news is, the pub is trying to survive and we won't be back because of the serving time.
Labour, "Grinding businesses into the ground"
There's a photograph of the receipt; drinks, starters, mains, desserts.
