BrewDog has cancelled its Annual General Mayhem (AGM) for shareholders, admitting that it had been running the events at a loss.
Co-founder and chief executive James Watt said the meeting will instead be replaced by presentations in 100 of the brewery's bars around the world on 22 April.
“Last year’s in-person AGM was a tremendous success, and it was great to be back in Aberdeen amongst over 10,000 equity punks,“ read a statement. “However, that’s just a fraction of our global community of over 220,000 people – the vast majority of whom can’t attend the event and miss out.
“As with many big events, the Aberdeen AGM’s are also very expensive to host and, like many businesses across the UK, we are still battling the impact of inflation and spiralling energy costs.“
The Ellon-based business racked up operating losses of £5.5m last year.
Watt commented: “All UK hospitality businesses are fighting hard to avoid closures and protect jobs due to an unprecedented inflationary environment.
“To lose £1m on an event when we could do something which helped support our bars would have been imprudent.”
The new plan is for each hosting bar to have special beers on tap, with some also having the live music that had been a part of previous AGMs.
“It’s an experiment and will be a different kind of AGM, but we’re confident it will be an amazing experience for our global community,” added a spokesperson.
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