Young Guns alumni and co-founders of BrewDog, James Watt and Martin Dickie, have been awarded the Keystone Law Golden Gun at the 2015 Young Guns awards ceremony, hosted at the luxurious Roof Gardens, Kensington.
BrewDog is the fastest-growing craft beer producer, expanding through exporting their beer and opening BrewDog bars worldwide, at the same time as attracting considerable media attention for their PR stunts.
The Golden Gun award recognises the outstanding achievements of a particular Young Guns alumni member, with former winners including Ross Williams of the popular online dating site Global Personals Ltd and Holly Tucker MBE, co-founder of online marketplace notonthehighstreet.com.
Watt and Dickie co-founded BrewDog in April 2007, producing small batches of beer to sell at local markets, hoping to provide an alternative to the industrially brewed beverages dominating the UK market. Since then, BrewDog has run four hugely successful rounds of equity crowdfunding, exported their beer to 55 different countries, created the UK’s strongest beer (packaged in road kill) and dropped dozens of ‘fat cats’ over the City of London. The business’ efforts were rewarded in the form of a turnover reaching almost £30 million in 2014.
The Golden Gun accolade follows a host of other titles awarded to the duo, including the 2008 Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and the 2012 BII Scotland Best Bar Operator award.
Keystone Law’s Managing Director, James Knight, commented:
“This year’s event featured some of the country’s elite entrepreneurs with some of the most individual passions and disruptive minds that we have seen so far. This was Keystone’s third consecutive year awarding the Golden Gun and, as usual, it was no easy task selecting the winner.
“Brew Dog captures the current zeitgeist perfectly. Ultimately, people want something different. And this business has been designed to exist as a real alternative to what people perceive beer to be. I was delighted to present the award and reward a business that continues to push the boundaries.”