Ever in the headlines thanks to unshakeable controversy, brewer and bar chain BrewDog have committed itself to sharing half its bar profits with all bar staff and give around 750 workers shares worth £120,000. After recently being valued at £1.8billion, over 1,500 hourly staff can expect to earn an extra £3,000 to £5,000 a year in cash.
Co-founder and current chief executive James Watt has also claimed he will give five percent of the business to salaried workers in an apparent attempt rehabilitate the brand's tarnished image. BrewDog has previously being described as a business which runs of a "culture of fear".
Just last year, the Scottish beer company had to apologise to former employees, after Mr Watt was alleged to have fostered a toxic culture in which workers were bullied and "treated like objects". The open letter by over 60 former staff members said:
Read more: Newcastle's top 10 pubs and bars according to Tripadvisor
Timeline of controversy at BrewDog
2009
Founded in 2006 by Watt and Martin Dickie in Fraserburgh, it took just two years for their beer to be stocked in Tesco. However, controversy soon followed in 2009 after naming a beer 'Speedball', a slang term for a mixture of crack cocaine and heroin.
Its Tokyo beer was also pulled for shelves, following a ruling which deemed it to have fallen foul of marketing standards.
2010
BrewDog came under fire after using what animal rights groups described as "shock tactics to get attention," by advertising its 55% The End Of History ale inside the bodies of dead animals.
2011
The Scottish business employed an individual with dwarfism to protest outside Parliament for a week. They called it the "world's smallest protest" to demonstrate against a 300-year-old law which meant beer could only be served in third, half or full pint measures.
2014
After being disciplined by the Advertising Standards Authority after using the words "m*****", "t***" and "b*******" in marketing, BrewDog continued their headline making campaigns.
After a wave of anti-homosexual laws were passed in Russia, BrewDog unveiled their "not for gays" beer, featuring pictures of Vladimir Putin printed in the style of Andy Warhol's work.
2018 and 2020
The brand's beer which launched for International Women's Day backfired, after it was found to appeal to children and appeared to perpetuate sexism.
In 2020, the company were again found to have broken advertising standards, after marketing their alcoholic seltzer as 'healthy', despite it containing more alcohol than some of their ales.
