James Watt, the co-founder and Chief Executive of BrewDog, is stepping down after 17 years at the helm of the Scottish brewer.
The company revealed that Watt, who oversaw the company’s rise from a challenger craft beer maker to one of the industry’s leading suppliers, informed the board last year of his plan to leave the role. He will be replaced by James Arrow, who joined BrewDog last September as Chief Operating Officer.
Watt still owns 21 per cent of the business and will hold the newly created title “captain and co-founder” and continue to advise on strategy.
In a statement posted on social media, Watt said, “17 years ago, Martin and I founded BrewDog in Martin’s mum’s garage. With two humans and one dog we set out on a bold mission to make other people as passionate about great beer as we are.
"Little could I have imagined that this journey would see us build the world’s leading craft beer business, operate in over 70 countries, create a unicorn, ship over 1 billion cans of beer and be fortunate enough to work with such amazing people every single day.
"As a team we have won gold medals at the world beer cup, opened showstopping locations all over the planet, turned the beer industry on its head, continually taken a stand for the things we believe in, created thousands of jobs, broken crowdfunding records and continually strived to build the best company we possibly could.
"For almost two decades pretty much every second of my waking existence has been focussed on this amazing business. Being able to co-found and then lead BrewDog and our fantastic team has been the greatest privilege and the best adventure I could ever have wished for.
"After 17 fantastic years as CEO, I have decided to transition into a new role in the business, one of ‘Captain & Co-Founder’ – and James Arrow will pick up the reins as CEO as our business pushes forward into our next phase of growth."
