Brewdog achieved close to an 11% increase in like-for-like (LFL) sales during 2017, in what was “a really strong trading year for us”, David McDowall, managing director of its bars division, told MCA.
“We were really delighted with 2017, said McDowall. “We were just under 11% LFL growth in total, which from a sales perspective has been our strongest year, and gives us great confidence to grow the bars estate; and we’ve just finished January at +6% LFL growth.” Total UK bar sales for 2017 were £24m.
The Scottish brewer and bar operator is due to open new sites in Glasgow – with its new Hopworks concept, Reading and Seven Dials, as well as its first brewpub in Towerhill, London in April, which will feature a brew kit producing small batch beers to be served at the bar.
“We are excited about the launch of the London site, and we are currently looking for a location in Manchester for the second UK brewpub,” said McDowall.
“Our plan is to have flagship brewpub locations in key European cities, so we are looking at a location in Madrid at the moment, we are looking in Berlin and we want one in Paris. We feel these are fantastic ambassadorial sites for the brand and that it’s a really unique concept for Europe as well, so we want to really land them in high profile locations,” he said.
Of the brewpub concept he said: “A really important aspect of what we does is to shorten the gap between us and our customers and we feel this is a really amazing way to get our customers closer the action.”
BrewDog’s first Hopworks site – similar to a brewpub but on a smaller scale – is due to open in May. “It is a little bit of an experiment for us,” said McDowall. If successful, “we may do a handful but no more than that”.
