Brewer and bar operator BrewDog has strengthened the management structure for its rapidly expanding bar chain with the appointment of an operations director.
It has brought in Caroline Morris (pictured) to head operations for its BrewDog Bars, which has already grown to eight sites across the UK in just two years.
Caroline joins from Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) where she was new concept development manager, working on concepts such as Thai restaurant Tuk Cho. Before that she worked on M&B’s unbranded Castle pubs as senior marketing manager.
BrewDog opened its eighth bar last week in Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, taking over a site previously occupied by Mitchell & Taylor craft beer bar and Mexican bar-restaurant Green & Red. This week, it has opened its ninth BrewDog bar in Baldwin Street, Bristol.
Another bar is due to open before January in John Bright Street, Birmingham, while the company has also won a licence application case against Leeds City Council, which will see it open a bar in the city in early 2013.
Caroline said: “BrewDog have always been at the forefront of engaging customers and making them passionate about great beer. In my new role I hope to be able to tap into this ethos and get more and more people to enjoy and love awesome craft beer.
“Ambitious is a word that’s quite synonymous with BrewDog, and that ambition has led us to have a target of 10 bar launches within the next 12 months. It’s no small task, but it’s one I know will be extremely rewarding as part of this team.”
James Watt, co-founder of the Scottish-based company, added: “Caroline comes with a wealth of experience and she’s exactly the kind of person we need at this moment in time. We’ve got a lot of new bars opening and we need someone like her to ensure we are not just tags on a map but awesome, interesting spaces where people come to learn and love great beer.”
With a capacity of 90, BrewDog Bristol (pictured below) not only showcases BrewDog’s own ales but also draught beers from breweries all over the world, including Mikkeller, Evil Twin, The Kernel, Flying Dog, Rouge and Ballast Point.
Watt said: “We have lit the fuse on a revolution that has already redefined beer in the UK, with Bristol the latest city to embrace mutiny and reject the mainstream mega corporations currently ruling the drinks industry with an iron fist stuffed full of marketing cash.
“Bristol has always been a prime target for a BrewDog bar: there has always been a solid community of craft beer fans and we’ve been regularly lobbied by them on our blog to choose Bristol as our next location.
“Since the days of buccaneering pirates, Bristol is a city with a great heritage of anti-establishment thinking and BrewDog Bristol is more than another bar; it’s a bastion for the craft beer revolution in the West Country. This is a call to arms for those in Bristol looking to shake the dust from the drinks scene and reject the tasteless, apathetic, mass-produced lagers that decorate the majority of bars in the city.”
