Tilray Acquires BrewDog UK for £33M, 484 Staff Laid Off Immediately

Tilray Brands has completed a reported £33 million rescue purchase of BrewDog’s UK assets, preserving 733 jobs that will transfer to Tilray while administrators confirmed 38 BrewDog bars will close with immediate effect, leading to 484 redundancies. Administrators said the closures and redundancies were unavoidable in the sale process and stated, "Regrettably, a total of 38 bars in the UK will close with immediate effect, leading to 484 redundancies."

The deal transfers BrewDog’s global brand and related intellectual property, the UK brewing operations including the brewery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, The Hop Hub distribution centre in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, BrewDog’s Aberdeenshire head office and 11 strategic brewpubs in the UK and Ireland. The pubs listed as part of the sale include sites in Birmingham; Canary Wharf, London; Paddington, London; Seven Dials, London; Tower Hill, London; Waterloo, London; Manchester - Peter Street; DogTap Ellon; DogHouse/Edinburgh DogHouse and Lothian Road; and a BrewDog venue in Dublin.

Tilray set out financial expectations for the acquired operations, saying the brewing and related operating assets should generate annual net revenue of around $200 million and adjusted EBITDA of up to $8 million. Tilray also said it did not anticipate a "meaningful" EBITDA contribution in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and expects the acquired business to become cash flow positive beginning in fiscal 2027 as integration and efficiencies are realised.

Administrators AlixPartners were appointed after BrewDog brought in consultants amid years without profit and a reported £37 million loss. AlixPartners said there had been "significant interest" in the company but that no offer was received that would have preserved BrewDog in its entirety, a factor administrators cited in making the rescue sale to Tilray.

The human cost of the administration prompted sharp reactions from unions and politicians. Unite described the day as "devastating" and Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, "BrewDog workers built this brand. They deserved respect. Instead, they were treated as disposable pawns." Unite’s national lead for hospitality, Bryan Simpson, called senior management’s conduct "nothing short of a national disgrace" and added, "For the CEO to tell workers that they were redundant with immediate effect, on a conference call with only 25 minutes notice, has echoes of P&O and is deplorable."

Harriet Cross, MP for Gordon and Buchan, said the job losses were "disastrous" and warned the cutbacks would be deeply concerning for everyone associated with BrewDog. Cross noted that Tilray told her brewing operations in Ellon "remain central to the business and the company has no plans to relocate production from Scotland."

Administrators and reporting named a partial list of venues among those closing, including Aberdeen - Castlegate, Aberdeen - Union Square, Edinburgh - Cowgate, Glasgow - Merchant City, Glasgow - Argyle Street, Inverurie, Perth, St Andrews and Stirling. BrewDog’s 18 franchise bars in the UK and internationally will continue to operate separately, administrators said, while equity holders including participants in BrewDog’s "Equity for Punks" crowdfund will receive no return from the sale.

Local hospitality figures have begun offering support to affected staff; the original report named Chef Dean Banks among those offering jobs to displaced workers. Workers have also planned a protest in Aberdeen city centre to denounce what they describe as poor treatment during the administration and sale. The Tilray purchase restructures BrewDog’s UK footprint around the Ellon brewery, the Hop Hub and a smaller portfolio of strategic pubs, while leaving crowdfund investors with no recovery and hundreds of front-line hospitality workers out of work.