Helping change the way our nation does logistics

About Brewdog

In 2007 BrewDog had two employees and brewed 185,000 pints of beer. Ten years later they had 1,000 employees, brewed 60.6 million pints of beer and had 46 bars. Today they are producing circa 175 million pints of beer per annum and have recently opened the doors to their 116th bar, in Bangkok.

The pace of their growth has brought challenges, but BrewDog is a highly recognised global brand that continues to follow an ambitious growth trajectory.

Whilst BrewDog is focused on growth, they want to do so in a sustainable way. In their own words, they want to “ensure we have a planet to brew beer on”. A major part of the sustainability strategy was the investment of an anaerobic digestion plant on their site in North East Scotland. The anaerobic digester takes the organic processed liquids that are a biproduct of the brewing process and converts that into gas. This gas is used to power the steam generators on site and to power the fleet that distributes their beer.

The Challenge

The logistical challenges experienced by BrewDog

One of BrewDog’s greatest challenges is their location. Based north of Aberdeen, they are a long way from many of their customers. It takes time to get materials to the site and then time to get the finished product back down to their core customer base in the South. But their site in Ellon is part of their DNA and will never change so they need a provider who will work with them to develop the most efficient logistic solution that supports their unique heritage of where BrewDog was founded.

The sustainability challenges experienced by BrewDog

While sustainability needs to be an essential part of every business strategy, it does bring its own complexities. From getting the anaerobic digester working effectively to considering the payload and range of the trucks which are powered by renewable fuels – sustainability is still a new way of working that is not always easy to navigate. BrewDog therefore need a partner to support them as their sustainability strategy unfolds.

The Solution

Growing together

We have worked with BrewDog since their early days. Initially, our Craib team supported with the distribution of their finished goods via the pallet networks and, as demand grew, we provided full truck loads. At the start, this was a few pallets a week. In 2023 we delivered nearly 113 million pints of BrewDog beer (650,000 hectolitres) to bars and retailers throughout the UK. That’s enough beer to fill 26 Olympic size swimming pools!

Just as BrewDog grew, so did we. In 2018, Craib became part of the Gregory Group. This acquisition opened up new routes to market for BrewDog with a greater ability to optimise loads.

Today, we support BrewDog with their full end-to-end supply chain, including the control of inbound materials and storage facilities. We asked Ross Watson, BrewDog’s Supply Chain Director, what the key ingredients to this evolving relationship were and he said:

Your scale is key because you can accommodate our needs as we grow. Obviously, performance is also essential. If you didn’t deliver a strong service and at a good price, we would need to look for an alternative provider. But you fair well when it comes to delivering on time and in full. We have high expectations, and you deliver on them.
While service and performance are what we measure, it’s important not to undervalue the people. Service is bound together by people. We’re always looking at what the optimum network is and how we can improve the cost to serve, and we collaborate tightly on this. It’s a real partnership.

Making sustainability a reality

When it comes to running a renewable fleet there are many considerations – which renewable fuel to use, what is the payload difference, what is the range, where can the vehicles refuel, what future developments are on the horizon? This is where we come in. We are heavily invested in a sustainable future and have our own in-house experts who guide our customers through these unknowns. We make it our job to keep up to speed, so our customers don’t need to.

As Ross puts it:

Ultimately, our focus is on making amazing beer. We rely on you guys to be the experts in sustainable transport and distribution.

While we know how essential sustainable logistics are, we also know that sustainable solutions need to be cost effective. Right now, renewable fuels have payload and range limitations, and fuel costs are often higher. We therefore work closely with our customers to ensure they have all the information they need so their sustainable strategy continues to deliver a cost-effective logistics solution.

For BrewDog, their sustainable fleet began when we provided them with the UK’s first all-electric 19-tonne refrigerated lorry which delivers to customers in London. Today they also use CNG trucks, initially using CNG supplied by us, and with the potential to be fuelled by their anaerobic digester in the future.

Ross explains that this is just the start of their journey:

Sustainability is a high priority for us. We have invested heavily and will continue to do so. We know where we want to get to, but we need the expertise of Gregory Group to ensure we get there as cost effectively as possible.