Profit of punk Brand master who turned beer rebellion into billions

The extraordinary success of the Scottish beer and bars company BrewDog owes much to a shrewd realisation on the part of its co-founder, James Watt. The 42-year-old, who announced his departure as chief executive yesterday, realised that punk, once a subculture, could be turned into a lucrative marketing brand.

- Rob Davies

Under Watt, and his co-founder Martin Dickie, BrewDog styled itself as an abrasive upstart on a mission to upset Big Beer and, in his words, "set fire to the scene".

Along the way, Watt revelled in being the snarling public face of BrewDog while Dickie took a back seat. Watt gleefully lashed out at anyone BrewDog did not consider "punk", often as part of the company's sometimes near-the-knuckle publicity stunts.

Watt threw taxidermy cats out of a helicopter above the City of London, a clunky reference to the financial district's fat cats. He and Dickie displayed their contempt for the corporate suits of the beer world by filming themselves blowing up cans of Heineken.