FromThe Daily Sceptic

By Will Jones

Brewdog has sold an £8.8 million Scottish forest it acquired just five years ago as part of its Net Zero drive after mounting losses forced it to cut spending. The Telegraph has the story.

The site, a former grouse moor known as the Kinrara Estate, was acquired by the brewer in 2020 to help with its Net Zero credentials. At the time, the Scottish brewer had grand plans to plant millions of trees and turn it into Scotland’s “biggest ever” forest.

However the initial planting was a failure because the trees died and Brewdog had now sold the estate 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.

Under then-chief executive James Watt, the company said the project would help it become the world’s first carbon negative beer brand and be funded partly by sales of its Lost Forest beer.

However Brewdog, which rose to prominence for its eye-catching stunts, was forced to retract many of the claims about the forest after unveiling the purchase to much fanfare.

These included admitting that the estate was actually 9,142 acres rather than over 12,000 acres as claimed and that the site would absorb much less CO₂ annually than original expected.

The move signals Brewdog’s bid to revive its fortunes and focus on its main brewing business after a slide in sales.

The company’s latest accounts showed it posted a loss of £37 million last year, the fifth consecutive year of losses.

In August, BrewDog’s beers were also axed by almost 2,000 pubs across the country, cutting the distribution of the embattled brewer’s drinks by a third.

Worth reading in full.