In 2025, Tilray’s beverage business generated $241m in revenue. That’s set to double to $500m with the BrewDog acquisition.
But more importantly, it give the company an international footprint.
From cannabis to craft
Tilray started life in Canada in 2013 as a pure-play cannabis company. But it’s broadened out its focus beyond cannabis (which now only represents around 30% of the business) and switched its headquarters to the US.
And in beverages, it’s been gathering up craft beer brands from across the US. It started relatively small: $300m spent on Georgia’s SweetWater Brewing in 2020; $5.1m on California’s Alpine Beer Co. and Green Flash Brewing Co in 2021.
Then in 2023 it splashed out $85m on eight Anheuser-Busch brands: including 10 Barrel Brewing Company and Blue Point Brewing Company. That was followed by the acquisition of Molson Coors craft brands, including Revolver Brewing and Atwater Brewing, in 2024.
Just a few weeks ago, Tilray struck a deal with Carlsberg to produce and distribute Carlsberg, Kronenbourg and 1664 Blanc in the US.
And now, BrewDog.
The underdog in BrewDog’s future
The BrewDog acquisition is the next step in this chain of acquisitions. While European brewing heavyweights had been touted as possible suitors for the brand, Tilray was the ultimate buyer.
“I personally admired the BrewDog brand for many years, watching its evolution across multiple valuation cycles, including when the company was valued well over $2bn in 2021,” said Irwin Simon, Tilray’s CEO.
Tilray's acquisition of BrewDog
Tilray has acquired the BrewDog brand (and rights to intelletual property); UK brewing operations and 11 brewpubs in the UK and Ireland.
In a separate deal, it's acquired the brand in Australia. Negotiations are under way for the US business.
“Our approach has always been to be patient and disciplined and wait for the opportunities, and waiting until we have built the scale and infrastructure and operating expertise required to be the right long-term steward for a brand if this became available.”
BrewDog represents a unique opportunity for Tilray. First of all, there’s the cut price deal at £33m. That covers the BrewDog brand and selected UK/Ireland assets.
That includes the Ellon brewery in Scotland: the site alone has had £100m of capital pumped into it.
Then there’s the BrewDog brand: which is still ‘one of the most recognizable international craft beer brands in the world’.
And it’s this global might that’s important.
At a glance: Tilray Brands
Having originally been created as a cannabis business, Tilray Brands is now a lifestyle and CPG company operating in the cannabis, beverage and wellness industries.
Its main cannabis business is in Canadian adult-use cannabis, and it also has a medical cannabis division.
The beverage business covers craft beer as well as THC brands such as Happy Flower and Herb & Bloom. It also has Hi-ball Energy, an energy seltzer.
A distibution business makes up the top trio of its divisions: each of which approach a third of revenues (a wellness division completes the business with around 7% of sales).
Following the BrewDog acquisition, Tilray Brands is expected to reach around $1.2bn in annualized revenue.
Going global
Over the last few years, Tilray’s strategy has been to identify promising regional brands, acquire them; then build them up with national distribution. The BrewDog acquisition is simply the next step in a tried-and-tested game-plan: now elevated onto a global scale.
The main attraction of the BrewDog acquisition is ready-made platform for international growth that it comes with.
This will allow Tilray to take its US’ brands global; as well as continue to champion the BrewDog brand on an international stage.
“We’ve acquired a world-class brewing infrastructure, a high-quality craft beer portfolio and strategic real estate at a fraction of the capital and time required to replicate this footprint from the ground up,” said Simon.
“The Ellon brewing operation alone represents over £100m of invested capital. This gives Tilray the infrastructure to introduce our leading US craft brands into Europe through an existing production and hospitality platform.
“We are not entering Europe from scratch. We are not leasing capacity, and we’re not testing distribution relationships market by market. We now own a proven scale European beverage platform, accelerating our beverage strategy by years.”
Shock Top, Montauk and SweetWater are likely to be the first US brands available to UK consumers.
How to win in beer in 2025
Tilray’s biggest push into beer comes as beer sales worldwide remain sluggish. The craft category, meanwhile, has matured and growth is much harder to come by.
Competition is growing from canned cocktails, while many people are drinking less entirely.
In 2025, Tilray was the fourth largest craft brewer in the US, by volume (BrewDog was at #30). Companies such as Boston Beer are still bigger; as, of course, are global brewers and their brands.
But Tilray only started in the beer business in 2020: and Simon says that size is not the name of the game in 2026.
“It’s not how big you are. It’s about how profitable you can get these businesses in a tougher category today,” he said.
“I think what we’ve done, in a short period of time - acquired, integrated and taken costs out - is great.”
For Tilray, there are many angles to expand on this growth.
BrewDog’s infrastructure will provide a perfect platform for Tilray’s US brands to enter the UK.
BrewDog’s brewing facilities, meanwhile, come with huge capacity: Tilray can look at offering co-packaging services, for example, suggests Simon.
Meanwhile, the BrewDog brand itself is one that can be revamped and once again positioned for growth, with the fundamentals remaining strong.
Tilray has been very focused on which parts of the business it has bought and the parts of the business it does not want.
Simon, for example, is clear that the off-premise is the main focus of the business. Tilray has bought 11 brewpubs in major cities in the UK and Ireland - seeing some use for them in its expansion plans but highly wary of the drain on resources - and left the rest behind (the remaining 38 bars have closed).
Tilray believes its bigger, structured business is what BrewDog needs: hoping for a quick fix in stablilizing operations and improving efficiencies.
After that will come investment, expansion, and - promises Tilray - growth.
