BrewDog to open new £19m brewery in Ohio, US
Scotland-based craft brewery brand and bar group BrewDog has announced it is to open its first brewery outside the UK, in Ohio, the US.
The site, in Canal Winchester in the Columbus region of Ohio, will act as the company's North American headquarters, as well as a production facility, and the base for the group's planned expansion in the country.
Representing an investment of $30.4m (£19.3m), the 100,000 sq ft new site has been developed with the help of economic partners JobsOhio, Columbus 2020, and the City of Canal Winchester.
Designed by Columbus-based Triad Architects, it will be the main brewing source for all BrewDog USA's beer production, and will also feature a restaurant, taproom and visitor centre. It is expected to initially serve the US market, with potential for international export, producing more than 85,200 barrels in its first year, and increasing each year until it can produce 852,000 barrels annually.
The group also announced it was accepting applications for the roles of chief executive, brew master, vice president of sales, chief financial officer, prospective brewers, packaging operators, and lab and quality managers, to begin work in 2016.
At the time of writing, the group could not confirm its exact plans for expansion in the States, but said any growth would be funded in part using finance from a new crowdfunding bid in the US, named Equity for Punks USA.
This will be a crowdfunding model along the same lines as the existing UK-based Equity for Punks scheme, which is currently hosting a crowdfunding bid to raise £25m for UK expansion, and upon launch this year managed to raise £5m in just three weeks.
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