OP: BrewDog’s stockholder program is for punks like you

As a beer lover, Columbus is a great place to live with over forty craft brewers within an Uber ride from my house. But only one of them will sell you a pint and a piece of the business – Brew Dog. 

The founders of this international venture financed the brewery not thru traditional methods but with direct stock sales to individuals, offering cool tchotchkes like free beer to potential stockholders in a program BrewDog calls “Equity for Punks!”, which is open to US residents now thru the middle of August. 

For a mere $50 dollar investment, you get 5% off your tab every time you visit a Brew Dog establishment, along with free beer on your birthday and invites to lots of cool events. 

Wanna spend more? 

For a $1000 stock purchase, you’ll get a couple of free nights at the Dog House, the hotel they are building next to the brewery in Canal Winchester.

But true beer nirvana shows up at the $50,000 mark.  BrewDog will deliver 1,000 shares  directly to your house as they “install a fully functioning BrewDog bar in your home, with 3 taps, a beer fridge and a miniature set up of a BrewDog bar!”

Is this for real?

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“Yes!” says Brew Dog spokesperson Heather Shepard in an email. “We have had 2 people claim a bar in their house and we’re currently working on the designs for these.”

This is not an investment for the weak-hearted. BrewDog shares pay no dividends and don’t trade on any public markets. 

You can’t get a daily quote, and if you want to sell you have to wait for that one day each year or so where you can put your stock up for grabs in an online marketplace.  

So, other than the cool bennies, is it a good investment?  An American private equity firm thinks so. 

TSG Consumer Partners just invested $285 million in BrewDog, the first (and only) institutional investor in the company. (Hmm, wonder what kind of bar their offices will get..) 

What about for an individual?  A stock analyst told The Guardian newspaper that early British stock buyers (2009) got a 443% return on their initial investment, but doubts if that can continue.

I’m not sure if you’re convinced but I sure am! I’m buying one $50 share.

I figure at a 5% discount on my future Brew Dog beer tabs, I can make that back pretty quickly.  

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