James Watt vows to ‘do things differently’ with new beer brand

BrewDog founder James Watt is heading back into the beer business with a new brand called Second Best.

The entrepreneur posted on social media today referencing his former company, with BrewDog having been sold to US brewer and cannabis firm Tilray Brands for £33m in March, resulting in 38 bars closing and 484 jobs lost.

Watt said that this time he wants “to do things differently”. He wrote: “From launching in 2007, I helped build a beer business from two people and one dog into one of the biggest craft beer brands in the world.

He vowed that Second Best would be “smaller, more focused, more obsessive about quality” and that he wants “to build it with the community from day one”.

Watt invited BrewDog’s ‘equity punk’ investors, many of whom saw their investments disappear during the sale, to claim the same stake size in his new venture for free.

On Second Best’s newly-registered website, he stated: “Thousands of people trusted me to build a brilliant beer business and create value for them.

“It was an obligation I took very seriously. And I, for one, am not done with that obligation.

“If you were an equity punk investor, I am planning to allocate up to 19.3% of Second Best for you. You can claim the exact stake you once held in BrewDog, for free.

“No catches, no cash required, and your equity in Second Best will always rank alongside my own.

“You’ll own it. I’ll fund it. And I’ll dedicate myself to building it. You’re not shareholders this time. You’re Second Founders.”

Watt added: “I am determined to make good on my promise of creating value for you and building a world class beer business that we all collectively own.”

He said that Second Best is working on a launch date when it has all the relevant licenses and consents in place, and also hinted at an “alcohol adjacent concept” launch.

Watt stepped down as BrewDog CEO in 2024, 17 years after he co-founded the business with Martin Dickie, though remained a major shareholder.

When BrewDog put itself up for sale in February and appointed restructuring experts AlixPartners to gather interest from potential bidders, having reported five consecutive years of financial losses, Watt attempted to take back control by ploughing £10m of his own money into the craft brewer.

However, he was outbid by Tilray Brands and following the sale said he was “heartbroken” for staff and investors who had lost jobs and money as a result of the firm’s collapse and apologised for “many mistakes along the way”.

Watt also launched “brand building” business Social Tip in 2024.