BrewDog out to raise £2.3m in share issue

BREWDOG, the controversial Scottish micro-brewery responsible for producing the UK's strongest beer, is hoping to raise £2.3 million through a pioneering online share issue to fund a carbon neutral brewery in Aberdeen.

The Fraserburgh-based firm, whose marketing strategies have often landed it in hot water with health lobbyists and industry watchdog the Portman Group, has put 10,000 shares up for grab at a cost of 230 each in a scheme called "Equity for Punks".

The move comes on the back of a major investment in the brewery from US drinks magnates Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio, the pair who built Skyy vodka before selling it to Campari for $1 billion (600m) in 2007. They will join the brewer's management team with a view to growing sales and distribution in the US and other markets.

BrewDog, founded in Aberdeen two years ago by James Watt and business partner Martin Dickie, will offer 10 per cent of the company's value as stock. Investors will be limited to 9,000-worth of shares per application and shares will rank equally for dividends alongside existing shareholders. The stock won't be traded on the stock exchange, instead there will be "matched bargains" available for shareholders to sell their investment.

Watt and Dickie say the share deal is a first in Europe, and would "shorten the distance as much as possible between ourselves and the people who drink our beers".

Co-founder, 26-year-old Watt, said: "Since we started, our whole company ethos has been to share the experience of what we do as much as possible between ourselves and the people who enjoy our beers. Equity for Punks is really a fruition of this philosophy, giving up ownership of a part of the business to people that enjoy our beers and giving them involvement in the company."

BrewDog hit the headlines earlier this year with its 18.2 per cent ABV bottled beer called Tokyo. In the wake of the furore it produced a 1.1 per cent ale called Nanny State.

Greggor, pictured below, who with his business partner Foglio has invested 600,000 and taken a 12.5 per cent stake in the firm, believes that BrewDog is one of the few "game-changing players" to come into the industry in recent years.

He said: "When I first met James I was blown away by his vision of where he wanted to take BrewDog. It is very infrequently that you really see a new game changing player enter the market. BrewDog has a very original approach to making beer but it also has a very original approach to branding and communicating with the customer base. I have never seen anyone pull the whole together as well as they have.

"My bet is that BrewDog will be huge. It is becoming a global brand in so much that it is available now in 15 countries. James and Martin have looked at the whole beer industry so differently and it's not like they have worked in the beer industry and got stuck in the trams lines like everybody else."

Old school friends Dickie and Watt developed the idea for a brewery after gaining a taste for good beer but feeling disappointed at what was on offer locally. Dickie studied brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University while his friend read law and economics at Edinburgh.

BrewDog emerged from a list of names drawn up on a scrap of paper. They wanted something edgy, non-traditional and placeless that would get them noticed.

BrewDog posted a profit of 9,817 in the six months to the end of July this year, on turnover of 851,000. The brewery, which employs 27 staff members, has experienced 230 per cent growth on last year.