BrewDog Admits To Mistakes That Breached US Import Law

, BrewDog Admits To Mistakes That Breached US Import Law

(BrewDog Founders James Watt and Martin Dickie)

James Watt, BrewDog’s co-founder and CEO has admitted that the company took “shortcuts” in the past when it sent shipments of its beer to the US.

Here’s the deal…

In a recent Linkedin post, James Watt addressed a tricky issue, that BrewDog had omitted information about the extracts used in two of its beers, including its popular Elvis Juice, which the company had shipped to the United States.

“The process of importing our own beer was new to us and we took some shortcuts to get the beer to America on time and we made some mistakes with the paperwork on the first few shipments. All applicable taxes were always paid in full, but the paperwork was not always correct in the first few months back in 2017 and we did not realize we needed to get things like the Elvis Juice recipe and ingredients approved in advance (although this was subsequently approved).

“In hindsight, there were oversights in labelling and paperwork due to the fact we were trying to run a growing business on one side of the Atlantic and start a new business on the other. Now, we have a fantastic compliance team in the business to help ensure everything is always shipshape.”

, BrewDog Admits To Mistakes That Breached US Import LawIn his July 19th post, Watt went on to explain that BrewDog had contacted the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to inform them, but the BBC alleges that is has seen evidence suggesting that TTB officials were given “false information on at least five occasions during a six-month period.”

The Drinks Business is reporting that Watt consulted former TTB Senior Counsel Tom Niekamp, who apparently told the brewer that “the errors made would not risk an importer’s license,” and “to allege that is a monumental overreach at best.”

When BrewDog opened its first taproom in Columbus, Ohio almost six years ago they had a bar, 100 employees, but thanks to brewing equipment that ended up being delayed, they had no beer. BrewDog scrambled to correct this obvious problem by rushing the import process.

“Ours is the story is a young company and an inexperienced leadership team very much growing up in public,” Watt added, “and mistakes were made along the way.”

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BrewDog has been taking some heat of late…

BREWDOG LOOKS BACK AT A DIFFICULT YEAR

BREWDOG’S JAMES WATT TAKES 100% BLAME FOR TOXIC WORKPLACE CULTURE

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