Friday, 31 October 2025

Time to put the dog down?

The rise and fall of craft beer in Britain has been an interesting, and at times irritating, thing to watch. The same could be said about Brewdog, the company that made the most noise, and money, out of it. 

They seem to be circling the drain now though. A recently spate of bad news started with the (rather belated) report that they'd lost 2000 on trade accounts. Losing out to Heineken's Beavertown I suspect, as Heineken also own thousands of pubs. And speaking of pubs Brewdog have also closed a lot of theirs recently. 

The still shift a lot of beer in supermarkets, but they're not getting premium prices for their beers there. In fact, they're cheaper than the other multinational corporations offerings. I recently saw Guinness' premium product at £8.75 for a four pack...

... compared to Brewdog's stout at £4.50.


Price per litre was £3.92 for the Guinness and £2.56 for Brewdog. There was a less premium version of Guinness there too, which like the Brewdog stout was going for a sale price, but even that was £3.41.

There's a similar big gap when Brewdog undercut Molson Coors' Doom Bar, the original at £5.30 a litre...




... whereas Brewdog's coastal 4.3% ABV amber ale is £3.55 a litre. The craft beer revolution was all about making a knock off version of Doom Bar, right?

And even when Brewdog aren't undercutting the companies they claim to despise they're still the budget option in the craft section, their beers being the discounted ones:


Now it is possible I've just looked when it's Brewdog's turn in the discount cycle, but I still can't see any way this is good for them. They're still making losses and have stagnant sales. Brewdog are by far the most successful of the British craft breweries but they're still small compared to the really big breweries. Competing with them for the tiny margins of supermarket discounting is not going to solve their problems any time soon. 



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4 comments:

  1. Paul Bailey1 November 2025 at 13:34

    Too many similar sounding, and similar looking beers. Too many garish cans, and still far too much hype.

    Not a fan!!

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  2. Anonymous1 November 2025 at 17:30

    Nothing different here to the last few years on pricing. Always priced to try and drive volume - the sales wouldn’t have hit the heights they did without it.

    Doom Bar in 500ml bottles will always be more expensive than some cans too. But it was the supermarkets who asked for the ‘Doom Bar knock-off’. You also can’t expect to steal even a slither of Guinness’ dominance without price fighting with them. Especially when they’ve pushed the price to crazy levels due to having a monopoly on stout.

    Troublesome times at the Dog. But this doesn’t relate really.

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    Replies
    1. Ed1 November 2025 at 17:44

      Thanks for commenting, interesting stuff. The shop didn't have the bottles of shore leave when I looked so I made the comparison I could. Funny to hear brewdog are dancing to the supermarket's tune though. Craft as fuck! I guess what struck me is brewdog just aren't getting the premium price that craft beer used to have, and I can't see undercutting the likes of Diageo and Molson Coors in supermarkets is going to solve their financial problems.

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    2. Anonymous1 November 2025 at 21:08

      But this pricing strategy is nothing new. They’ve always being an affordable craft option which is why they account for half of all craft beer sales in supermarkets (and why they get so much shelf space).

      What will be interesting, if their demise is to be believed, is when you start seeing shelves of BrewDog going to another craft brewer or a completely different beer category. Until then, their growth is much slower but they’re still incredibly popular.

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