James Watt and BrewDog represent the worst excesses of millennial hustle culture and performative rebellion. Their ambition-over-ethics approach would never fly today, writes Herald columnist Marissa MacWhirter.

This week, Brewdog has been suffering from a hangover so bad you would think the company had been glugging down its own acrid pints for the last few years.

On Monday, hundreds of employees were made redundant over a 15-minute video call by the disembodied voice of chief executive James Taylor. The Ellon-based beer company went into administration and was scooped up in a fire sale by beverage and cannabis firm Tilray for £33 million. Dozens of bars would shut immediately, and anyone who bought into the company via its Equity for Punks scheme would be getting a big fat zero returned on their investment.

With cameras switched off and no time for questions, Taylor reportedly explained that the workers' fate was now in the hands of the insolvency firm.

Brewdog co-founder James Watt chose his favourite social media platform, LinkedIn, to express how “heartbroken” he was about the sale, lamenting the 484 jobs that were destroyed, the 38 bars to be boarded up, and the hundreds of thousands of people who bought into his narrative that would be left empty-handed.

“I am heartbroken for all of the hardworking and passionate team members who have lost their jobs,” he wrote. “I am heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted.”

In his statement, Watt positions himself as a victim and neglects to acknowledge how his decision-making put people's livelihoods at risk. “Heartbreak” is not accountability.

Sorry, Georgia, it's time to run a mile from attention-seeking BrewDog boss

Sorry, Georgia, it's time to run a mile from attention-seeking BrewDog boss

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