Scottish brewer and retailer BrewDog has acquired Draft House, the 13-strong London-based craft beer operator led by Charlie McVeigh and backed by Luke Johnson.
David McDowall, managing director of BrewDog’s bar business, said: “We’re incredibly excited to announce we are joining forces with one of the most exciting craft beer bar businesses in the UK, enabling us to bring more amazing beer to more people, across the country.
Draft House is an absolute staple for the London craft beer scene (and beyond) and its people, its culture and its awesome spaces are well-respected cornerstones of the craft beer bar scene. As of Monday (26 March), Draft House is now a part of BrewDog.
At BrewDog, we are obsessed with making other people as passionate about amazing craft beer as we are, and in speaking with the Draft House team, we recognised there is a great opportunity to combine our efforts and continue to elevate the status of beer. We’re here for great beer, and empowering our people to provide incredible experiences and environments in which to experience great beer across our industry.
Beer is, and always has been (and, for the record, always will be) the beating heart of what we do at BrewDog. Every decision we make is for the betterment of craft beer. Draft House does a lot of things outstandingly well, and we’re all in for enabling them to further nail what they do best, and provide support where we can. This is a hugely exciting new adventure for us, and one we’re massively excited to share today.
Charlie McVeigh, founder of Draft House, has done an absolutely amazing job building the business to this stage. As of today, Charlie will hand over the reins and I will assume the role of managing director of Draft House, alongside my role as managing director of BrewDog bars. Effectively, though, we are creating one killer team, running an awesome global collection of craft beer bars.
We’ll be continuing to champion the incredible world of amazing, independent craft beer by ensuring Draft House is fully stocked with the world’s best beer from the planet’s most exciting and eclectic craft breweries. We’re also planning to involve the Draft House teams in the development and brew days for a series of beers brewed at our headquarters in Aberdeenshire, and these beers will launch across all Draft House sites.
Beyond that, we’re just really excited to continue evolving this awesome collection of bars with the Draft House team. The two most important things in our world are our beer and our people. We’re excited to extend that to our new family at Draft House, and would like to offer a massive welcome to every single one of them. Together, there’s no telling where we can take craft beer in the UK and beyond.”