FDBusiness.com

BrewDog is set to recruit 40 new staff, kick start a graduate recruitment programme, complete an £8m low-carbon craft brewing facility and open three craft beer bars in the next three months.

Despite continued pessimism surrounding the global economic crisis, BrewDog has bucked all trends in 2012 and achieved record sales at home and abroad, with a 200% increase in turnover so far this year.

BrewDog expects to achieve a turnover of £12m in 2012, an increase of £6m in one year There will be growth in domestic on trade and off trade markets as well as export sales This growth could have been more, had the company been able to produce enough beer to meet the insatiable demand of its customers.

Sales are expected to increase at an even faster rate once the company completes its new brewery a few miles from the existing premises in Aberdeenshire later this summer.

In July 2011, BrewDog began a campaign to raise funds for the brewery and the expansion of its bar network by selling shares to its own craft beer fans. The Equity for Punks scheme saw 6,000 ‘fanvestors’ jump on board in under six months, raising the maximum possible total of £2.2m.

Since the campaign finished in January, the company has opened new bars Manchester, Nottingham and Newcastle, and secured sites in three more cities.

James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog commented: “Five years ago, BrewDog was, Martin Dickie, myself, some second hand equipment and Bracken the dog. Now we’re Scotland’s largest independent brewery, selling our craft beer in 27 different countries and owning 8 amazing craft beer bars across the country. We’re opening three more bars in three months adding 40 new members of staff, yet all we hear about in the media is redundancies, downturns and Lady Gaga.”

James Watt continued: “The economic crisis has been our biggest catalyst for success. This is an environment for the innovators, for the misfits and the mavericks. There is a revolution happening, and heads will roll. We can see the empires of old crumbling, and the winners will be the people with the passion and commitment to make great products and make their companies work no matter what.

“People are fed up of having the wool pulled over their eyes; of being told their beer is from Australia when it’s from Burton-on-Trent, or that it tastes better because it’s ‘extra cold’, or because it has a QR code on the can,” added James Watt.

“When times are tough, people see through the thin veneer of corporate ad-speak and seek out genuine quality and value. The media say the beer market is in decline – but sales of good beers are going up and up. It is the global monolithic mega corporations peddling lame, tasteless lagers that have their head on the block, and the craft beer revolution is wielding the axe.”