BrewDog posts £8.1m losses due to pandemic

As reported by The Morning Advertiser's (MA)​ sister title MCA Insight​, the craft brewer and bar operator reported overall gross revenue of £108m against a budget of £126m.

It said the pandemic had resulted in a significant change to the group’s financial performance and position since 31 December 2019, the date to which the company’s last audited financial information was published.

As previously reported by The MA​, the enforced coronavirus lockdown meant Scottish brewer and bar operator BrewDog lost 70% of its revenue overnight​, causing co-founder James Watt serious concerns over whether the business would be able to trade once restrictions were lifted.

The retail division, which covers the company’s on-trade bars business, recorded gross revenues of just under half of the budgeted amount in the period between 31 December 2019 and 30 June 2020.

This resulted in a net loss of £9.2m for this part of the business.

On 3 August 2020, the company took out a Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan for £25m, with HSBC.

The loan is repayable in a single repayment three years from the date of the loan agreement.

In the full year to December 31 2019, BrewDog posted gross revenues of £214.8m, up 25% from £171.6m in 2018.

Profit before tax for the year was £1.15m, up from a loss of £576,000 in 2018.

The financial results were revealed as part of a prospectus for BrewDog’s latest public share offering, Equity for Punks Tomorrow.

Part of a series public share offerings and crowdfunded bond issues of crowdfunded investment, Equity for Punks has raised over £79m in the group.

In 2017, a £102.5m investment by private equity house TSG Consumer Partners saw them take 22% of the shares, valuing the company at £1bn.