BrewDog to consider adding major investor
BrewDog could be wooing a sugar daddy.
The Scottish craft brewer, known for raising millions by selling shares to tens of thousands of people through crowdfunding campaigns, could be looking to bring on a big-money investor, according to a letter sent to shareholders this week.
The letter also points to another round of Equity for Punks crowdfunding kicking off later this year, the creation of a management-incentive program and a mechanism to allow some “significant” shareholders to cash out a portion of their shares.
The biggest piece of its plan, though, is an amendment to its ownership structure that would let an investor buy up to 30 percent
of the company. A possibility of a future initial public stock offering, or IPO, was also floated in the letter.
“The company is also considering the timescale for a potential public listing,” the letter states, “and has been in discussion with a number of potential investors with a view to securing a significant investment to fund the company’s continued growth.”
The news that BrewDog is reaching out to find new sources of capital should cheer its fans and shareholders, said Chris Olson, partner at Drive Capital, a local venture-capital company.
“It is a good sign that this company is going in the right direction to be successful,” Olson said. “It is very normal ... to reach out to ever-larger sizes of investors.”
BrewDog reported sales of about $56 million last year and just opened its $30 million U.S. headquarters and brewery in Canal Winchester.
The company expects growth here to be explosive. If it mirrors the company’s performance in the United Kingdom, which has seen annual sales growth of 69 percent the past five years, BrewDog could get very big, very quickly.
There is no word on the identity of the potential investor, although venture capitalist Keith Greggor, whose Griffin Group owns Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, is one of BrewDog’s directors.
Such investments across the craft beer industry have often involved bigger, mainstream breweries buying pieces of craft brands. Examples include Heineken investing in Lagunitas, AB InBev buying Goose Island, and Constellation, owner of Corona, buying Ballast Point.
That model would seem to run against BrewDog’s core beliefs, often stated by co-founder James Watt. Last year, Watt used his Twitter account to say: “Bigger companies want to buy BrewDog. Go away silly big companies. BrewDog is not for sale. Especially not to you.”
Watt declined to comment on the potential investor or the letter to shareholders.
“At the moment, the information we released is all we are saying on the matter,” Watt said in an email.
BrewDog’s shareholders will also be asked to vote to create several classes of shares, including A, B and preferred classes, to smooth the way for an outside investor to buy in. The company will also do a 10-1 stock split.