BrewDog’s retail sales have nosedived following the brand’s pre-pack sale to Tilray Brands in March, The Grocer can reveal.
Since BrewDog appointed advisors to run an accelerated sales process in mid-February, sales of its beers in the off-trade have fallen by £10.5m (22.5%) year on year, on volumes down 21.7% [NIQ 12 we 16 May 2026]. Declines have accelerated in the past 12 weeks, with value sales down by 11.8% over the past 52 weeks.
Meanwhile, BrewDog’s share of total craft beer sales has dipped from 53.7% a year ago to 49.3% today.
All 10 of the brewer’s biggest SKUs are in value and volume decline, with some products, including 12-packs of big hitters Punk IPA and Hazy Jane, having lost over half of their value since last year.
At a brand level, Punk IPA and Hazy Jane have lost £3.7m between them, on volumes down 18.9% and 15.9% respectively.
Lost Lager, which BrewDog had previously earmarked as the beer to help it become the fourth-largest brewer in the UK off-trade, has fared little better. It’s lost £1.8m on volumes down 27.7%.
Black Heart – pitched as BrewDog’s answer to Guinness – has lost £1.2m on volumes that have slid 44.4%.
Shifting beer landscape
BrewDog’s sales declines reflect a shifting beer landscape in retail. The introduction of dedicated fruit beer bays in Tesco, for example, has come at the expense of a branded BrewDog bay in the retailer’s stores.
“Over the years, BrewDog has secured a level of visibility that few brands can match, from dedicated branded bays to extensive brand blocking across multiple retailers,” said Dave Knowles, MD of Alpine Online. “Maintaining that presence would have required substantial investment and retailer support over a prolonged period.”
As BrewDog raced to find a buyer, retailers would have “seen the writing on the wall and looked to protect their investment margins” by giving space and listing opportunities to other craft brands like Beavertown, Camden, Northern Monk, Vocation and Jubel, Knowles said.
“We can see this play out in the recent Tesco range review, resulting in less sales for BrewDog,” he added.
Administration backlash
The declines also demonstrate the scale of the challenge facing new owner Tilray Brands as it looks to improve public perception of the BrewDog brand.
Tilray paid an initial £33m to acquire BrewDog’s UK assets and global IP in March, but the deal led to the loss of almost 500 jobs after all but a handful of its brewpubs were closed.
The redundancies resulted in considerable backlash, with unions describing the limited consultation with staff – said to have taken place on a 25-minute conference call – as “devastating” and “deplorable”.
Meanwhile, many retail investors in BrewDog were aggrieved to discover that – having helped fund much of the brewer’s early growth via its ‘Equity For Punks’ crowdfunding initiative – their shares had been rendered worthless by the sale to Tilray.
Speaking to The Grocer in March, Tilray Brands CEO Irwin Simon admitted his first priority would be “restoring confidence” in the brand among staff, retail and on-trade partners and consumers.
“Perception will change if we get out there and talk to them,” he said. “We’ve got to get that sour taste out of people’s mouths.”
‘Undisputed craft leader’
BrewDog remained “the undisputed craft leader, with four of the five top craft beer brands” in UK retail, said the supplier’s chief commercial officer Lauren Carrol.
“Our Honeycomb Stout collaboration with Mackie’s has been the strongest selling craft NPD in the past 26 weeks, while Punk IPA remains the number one craft four-pack,” Carrol said. “We continue to have the highest customer loyalty base in our category by a wide margin, evidenced by the fact that both Punk IPA and Hazy Jane see significantly higher repeat rate purchases than our direct competitors.”
BrewDog had launched one of its “biggest-ever summer campaigns” to tie in with the World Cup this month, Carrol said. The brand was also looking to roll out more “experimental small-batch beers” alongside a “bold new brand campaign” later this year, she revealed.
“BrewDog has still got its bark, make no mistake, and the future is very bright,” she added.
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