Brewdog co-founder and former chief executive James Watt has described the brewer’s performance as “frustrating” after it posted an operating loss of almost £60m.

The beer brand doubled its pre-tax losses from £30m in 2022, to £59.2m last year, however, its gross sales jumped 11% from £321m to £355m.

It pointed to innovation within its grocery arm, after it launched three new hero beers, Wingman, Shore Leave, and Black Heart, in 2023. It claimed that Black Heart has now taken 10% of Guinness’ share in UK supermarkets.

Brewdog said sales from its grocery division had already edged up 2% from 2023 in the first half of 2024 as UK grocery volumes increased 10% year-on-year, outperforming the total grocery beer volume market by 13 percentage points.

The brewer has failed to post a pre-tax profit since the £1.1m it achieved in 2019.

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However, Brewdog CEO James Arrow said “progress” had been made in the past year, and the business was looking towards “delivering sustainable profitable growth” in the future.

Arrow added: “We are pleased to report our trading losses reduced significantly in 2023, reflecting the significant changes we have made to address inefficiencies in the way we operate, and this will continue to be a priority as our business continues to evolve and return to sustainable, profitable growth in 2024.”

However, Watt who took to social media platform LinkedIn to say Brewdog’s performance this year was “frustrating”.

He said: “Frustrating, yes we’re right on the edge of a return to our strong track record of positive EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] trading.”

Watt stepped down as chief executive in May this year, and was replaced by then chief operating officer Arrow.

In June, Watt co-founded a new functional soda brand Living Things which went on to secure a £500,000 pre-seed round following a strong market debut.