By Jon Robinson
The chief executive of Brewdog has hit back at the “ridiculous levels of criticism” his company received following the news that it would no longer be paying staff the ‘real’ living wage.
The Scotland-based Punk IPA brewer announced last week that it will now pay the government’s national wage rate of £11.44 per hour from April.
The business described the move as “important” and “necessary” as it warned about its trading loss last year, in a letter issued to staff.
Now Brewdog’s chief executive and co-founder James Watt has taken to social media to hit back at the reaction to the move in what he described as an “incredibly tough week”.
‘Business is incredibly hard’
In a post on LinkedIn, Mr Watt said: “Last week was an incredibly tough week at Brewdog at a time when our focus is on protecting jobs whilst providing best-in-class packages for our teams.
“If you saw the media storm last week (and let’s be honest – it would have been hard not to) you would be forgiven for thinking that we pay our fantastic people in the most miserly of ways. Or worse, that we had cut our team’s pay.”
He added: “Business is incredibly hard, especially when the UK economy is in such poor health, and sometimes you have to make incredibly difficult decisions.
“The controversy last week was because we have only increased our nationwide bar team wages 20.4 per cent since March 2022 and not the 26 per cent that would have been required to retain a real living wage status. No nationwide companies in hospitality that have this status, to the best of our knowledge.
“I would love nothing more than to give everyone in our business a huge pay increase, but we simply have to balance our books, offer fair value to our customers and ensure the long-term viability of our business. And ultimately, protect jobs.
“More bars and restaurants closed in 2023 than any other year on record – hospitality is in crisis. Last week, for example, Revolution Bars, a business we admire, announced it was closing eight venues – resulting in hundreds of job losses. Just yesterday The Independent ran a huge article about the thousands of bars and restaurants being forced to close in the UK.
“We are working as hard as we can to protect jobs and keep all of our bars open whilst offering market-leading packages to our brilliant people.
“Yet we have been subject to ridiculous levels of criticism. Most of all I feel terrible for all our fantastic team members. The abuse they have been subjected to is unprecedented.
“However, we simply must push on from here, more resolute than ever to build the best business we can for all our fantastic team members and our brilliant community.”
Also as part of the LinkedIn Post, Mr Watt said Brewdog gave a “huge” 80.3 per cent of its bar profits to its bar teams in 2023 while “not a single person in our business has had a pay cut” as was widely and falsely reported”.
He added that Brewdog’s national bar team’s wages will have increased by 20.4 per cent since 2022 by April this year and that in London, its entry position has a starting salary of £24,000.
From April 14, 2024, the craft beer maker will be using the new national living wage, which will rise by nearly 10 per cent.
If the company opted to continue to pay staff the real living wage, which is based on the cost of living, their pay would have risen to £12 per hour.
Staff in London will not be impacted by the change and they will remain on an £11.95 per hour pay.
