BrewDog CEO James Arrow has touted partnerships with recreational venues as a key route to boosting its on-trade success.
The Wingman IPA brewer announced a four-year partnership with the UK’s Marylebone Cricket Club in London, UK today (27 November).
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It will see the company’s Black Heart stout, 0.0 abv Lost AF and Hazy Jane beers poured across 450 draught taps at Lord’s Cricket Ground from early 2025.
Arrow told Just Drinks the on-trade remained “a big untapped opportunity” for BrewDog, with “traditional pubs” being a tricky environment for the group, given “the relationships” other major brewers already have in place. .
He added the Lord’s deal was “about finding that point of difference… that we can get good voice out and awareness”.
When asked whether the group planned to boost its sports partnership numbers in 2025, Arrow said: “There are other venues, other opportunities, sports and other recreational experiential venues. We think we work really well with those experiences… We think that’s a part of the market that we can tap into”.
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By GlobalDataArrow added that the business would remain focused on the UK for now in terms of venue partnerships.
Global sales director Stuart Harrison said that while BrewDog expected growth in grocery to continue into 2025, “we need [to] continue to drive penetration into craft, and we only do that with establishments like you can see behind, where our consumers and customers are experiencing our brands in places of fun, enjoyment and excitement”.
The Lord’s deal comes as BrewDog’s Arrow enters his seventh month as the brewer’s chief executive. He joined the company as COO in September 2023.
Arrow succeeded James Watt in May, who left the business after 17 years at the helm. Watt remains a board member, director and “part-time strategic advisor” of the company.
Commenting on the appointment earlier this year, David Harris, alcoholic beverages research director at GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent company, said he expected Arrow “to double down on BrewDog’s activities in the 0.0-abv space” in his tenure, as well as “explore closing some of their bars, where I think they may have over-expanded”.
Bolstering on-trade presence has been a key part of BrewDog’s more global growth strategy in the past, which it has done most evidently with its namesake bar chain.
In 2023, the company announced plans to open 100 BrewDog bars in India as it looked to make the country its “most significant market globally”.
Reports from The Financial Times this month however, suggested two of these bars in Mumbai had been shut since the summer. The Punk IPA maker refused to be drawn on the ambitions it has in place for the country.
BrewDog then confirmed to Just Drinks it still has two bars in India, one in Gurugram close to New Delhi and another in Amritsar.
