BREWDOG received more than £1.3 million in funding from the Scottish Government before it fell into administration, with hundreds of jobs lost as it closed dozens of bars across the country, The National can reveal.
The Ellon-based beer firm owed more than £550m in debts when it was handed over to administrators in March and was later bought by American brewer and cannabis group Tilray Brands for £33m.
The deal included several BrewDog assets, including the global brand and related intellectual property, UK brewing operation, and 11 of its pub venues across the UK and Ireland.
However, the takeover led to 38 BrewDog bars closing across the country, resulting in the loss of 484 jobs.
It has since been revealed in a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) that the beer giant had received £1,378,105 from the Scottish Government in the last five years before the businesses collapsed earlier this year.
The FOI showed BrewDog received £270,684 in the financial year for 2024/25, £991,702 in 2023/24 and £115,718 in 2022/23.
The funding largely came from two Forestry Grant Scheme Woodland Creation contracts awarded to BrewDog for its Lost Forest Project in the Highlands, totaling £1,203,105.
The firm’s tree planting project had been plagued with controversy, with it making headlines after it emerged in 2023 that around half of the trees planted in the Lost Forest at Kinrara estate, near Aviemore, had died.
The National reported in April 2025 that in a bid to help keep tree saplings alive by keeping deer out, BrewDog erected a perimeter fence, but instead actually trapped the animals inside.
The brewing company promised to create “the biggest-ever” woodland in the Highlands to help the regeneration of Scotland’s ancient forest after acquiring the land for £8.8m in 2020.
However, BrewDog sold the forest to Oxygen Conservation, a firm based in Essex, which claims to acquire land across the UK in a bid to restore it, for a reported sum of £8.85m, six months before it filed for administration.
A further £175,000 was awarded to BrewDog from the Scottish Government through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund towards an “industrial energy efficiency” project at its Ellon manufacturing site in the 2024/25 financial year.
It comes after financial advisory firm AlixPartners revealed that it had been involved in the deal to sell BrewDog as joint administrators, following several years of multi-million-pound losses by the firm.
Administrators estimated that debts within BrewDog PLC were more than £280m, with its retail arm, which ran its bars, owing another £270m.
BrewDog also owes HSBC, a secured creditor for both businesses, around £94m, with TSG Consumer Partners, a major investor in the firm, also owed more than £55m.
Administrators expect to pay HMRC £4.1m, which is owed by the PLC and 75% of the £2.4m is owed by the retail business.
Unsecured creditors are owed hundreds of millions of pounds across both entities.
Preferential creditors, which include workers’ wages, are reportedly owed £232,000 and will receive a full dividend.
Around £190m is expected to be received by unsecured creditors for the PLC and they are also expected to receive less than a penny in the pound of what they are owed.
Unsecured creditors for the retail business are expected to be due £207.7m and the firm also has an outstanding £13.3m loan to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
