Bayes academic comments on CEO BrewDog departure

This week, James Watt, the CEO of BrewDog, a popular Scottish brewery and pub group, stepped down from the role within the company. His position will be taken up by Chief Operating Officer James Arrow.

Co-founded by Watt and Martin Dickie in 2007 in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, BrewDog reached worldwide popularity. The company also became known for its eye-opening marketing campaigns and publicity stunts, which ranged from hiring artillery tanks to roll in Camden, London, to the owners changing their names to Elvis via deed poll to promote an Elvis-themed beer.

However, in 2021, dozens of former members of staff penned an open letter accusing the company of fostering a ‘culture of fear’ and having ‘toxic attitudes’ to young employees.

The company also came under fire a year later when Watt was accused of inappropriate behaviour toward ex-employees in a BBC investigation, and when it was revealed in in January 2024 that in order to reduce costs, Brewdog was freezing pay for bar workers in London and dropping out of the accredited real living wage scheme, and hiring new employees on the legal minimum wage instead.

With Watt stepping down from the Chief Executive role  this week,  Dr Amit Rawal, Lecturer in Management at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), said:

“This departure from BrewDog shows that whilst a change of leadership can steer a company in a different direction, further work needs to happen to undo a toxic culture and problematic marketing campaigns.

“A culture within a company is embedded in various ways which could go beyond leadership. Furthermore, marketing decisions can be influenced by an array of stakeholders. Depending on the industry and sector, for a company to see changes to its internal culture and external communications – changes need to start by examining the entire firm beyond the leadership level.”

All comments can be attributed to Dr Amit Rawal, Lecturer in Management.