BrewDog has sold the ‘rewilding’ forest it bought for £8.8million only five years ago amid increasing financial pressure.
The ‘punk’ brewery purchased Kinrara Estate, claiming it would be funded by sales of its Lost Forest beer, as it looked to reinvent itself as a ‘carbon negative’ beer producer.
It said it would turn the site into Scotland’s ‘biggest ever forest’ with millions of trees.
But half of the 500,000 trees planted died and it has now been sold to rewilding outfit, Oxygen Conservation.
‘The time is right to hand over the reins to an organisation that specialises in protecting and investing in natural capital,’ Brewdog said as it announced the sale.
BrewDog, which posted losses of £37m and closed 10 pubs last year, was embroiled in a string of controversies after acquiring the forest.
It was forced to admit it had falsely claimed the site was 12,000 acres rather than 9,142.
The beer brand also suggested the forest could absorb 550,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, when it could only absorb a maximum of 1m tonnes in 100 years.
BrewDog has sold its ‘rewilding’ forest just five years after the embattled chain bought it for £8.8million
The ‘punk’ brewery purchased Kinrara Estate, claiming it would be funded by sales of its Lost Forest beer as it looked to reinvent itself as a ‘carbon negative’ beer producer
The venture was part of a push by co-founder James Watt to brand the business as carbon neutral.
But the business abandoned its claim to be a ‘carbon negative’ brewery months after it emerged that half of the trees in the eco-friendly forest had died.
At least £690,000 of taxpayer cash had been put towards the company’s environmental efforts.
The firm, now run James Taylor after James Watt stood down in 2024, has previously promoted its lagers, ales and stouts as ‘planet positive beer’.
But bosses last year said offsetting its carbon with external schemes was too expensive and the company could no longer claim to be producing less carbon than it is offsetting.
Rich Stockdale, chief executive of Oxygen Conservation, denied that Brewdog’s work at Kinrara was a complete failure.
‘We were blown away by the job that had been done. [It was] far better than we expected. No woodland creation or environmental restoration project is without its challenges,’ he said.
It is the latest asset to be sold by Brewdog as it stages a fightback after a decline in sales.
The brewery recorded losses of £59m in 2023 and £30.5m in 2022. Last year was the fifth consecutive year the company made a loss.
But half of the 500,000 trees died and it has now been sold to rewilding outfit, Oxygen Conservation
And in August its beer were axed by almost 2,000 pubs across Britain as its popularity continues to wane.
The company’s range of draught beers have disappeared entirely from around 1,860 pubs in the last two years, according to private industry data.
The blow means BrewDog’s UK distribution has been cut by more than a third.
The collapse came as CEO James Taylor recently told investors that its financials did not make for ‘happy reading’.
Mr Taylor is the second new CEO to take over since founder and face of the company James Watt stepped back in May 2024 amidst a flurry of accusations of improper conduct.
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BrewDog sells ‘rewilding’ forest where 250,000 trees died as embattled ‘punk’ brewery stages fightback amid £37m loss and string of controversies