BrewDog serves up final Equity for Punks crowdfunder to boost sustainability

Craft beer firm BrewDog has launched a bid to raise up to £50 million in what it says will be the final round of its “record-breaking” Equity for Punks crowdfunding programme, helping it meet ambitious sustainability targets.

The aim is for the round to raise an initial target of £7.5m, with the stretch goal of £50m. Picture: BrewDog.

The Ellon-based firm said every penny raised through Equity for Punks Tomorrow will be committed to “cutting-edge” green projects including direct wind power, carbon dioxide recovery, electric vehicle fleets, and converting waste into energy.

The aim is for the round to raise an initial target of £7.5m, with the stretch goal of £50m, by releasing just under 300,000 B shares. The round will run for an initial 150 days, closing in January of next year.

Shares will cost £25.15 each and be issued in blocks of two. Any funds raised above its initial target will support a wider set of projects such as a £10m investment into solar panels at its breweries across the globe, a £12.5m brewery to be built in France, which the brewer said is its biggest export market, and a similar facility in Asia to more efficiently service growth markets in China, Japan and India.

The firm said the round signals its “most ambitious” series of projects yet, and comes after its announcement that it is now carbon negative, and is embarking on a journey to completely reduce emissions from its brewing operations to zero in less than 24 months. Smaller-scale projects supporting this goal are already under way, such as the BrewDog Forest, a 2,000-acre site in Scotland.

Equity for Punks Tomorrow will look to accelerate the implementation of green infrastructure and technology across its global operations, with projects including funding the construction of three BrewDog Tomorrow bars, which are zero waste and carbon neutral, and creating a hop farm at its Columbus brewery in the US.

BrewDog also noted that since Equity for Punks’ initial launch in 2009, the initiative has raised more than £75m from 148,000 investors. This, it said, has allowed it to fund an international expansion plan, 1,600-strong global team, 102 bars around the world, and four breweries in Berlin and Brisbane as well as Ellon and Columbus, and support its exporting operations to 60 countries.

BrewDog co-founder James Watt commented: “In 2009, we launched Equity for Punks, and pioneered a new kind of business model. Equity for Punks Tomorrow is the next evolution of this, uniting investors across the globe to make a change today to ensure we have a planet to brew beer on tomorrow.”

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