Hey guys – here's the 2nd piece in my little series on London-based businesses that absolutely crushed it.

This week it's Beavertown. Some of the cooler growth levers they pulled:

  • Why you’re supposed to steal the glasses
  • Thinking like a “band, not a brand”
  • Seeding ‘cool moments’ in a city – building much more good will than traditional campaigns

Have a great weekend!

P.S this topic came as a suggestion from the community – so please, feel free to drop any more you’d like to see down below.

So far we've done coffee (Grind Co) and now beer, so it would be nice to do something 'non-beverage-related' next week ha 🙂

by joejarred

20 comments

  1. All this marketing is cool and all, and maybe it gets people to try it for the first time. But at the end of the day I drink their beer because I haven’t found any other beer I consistently prefer the taste of.

  2. It’s a shame that Beavertown went from innovative craft beer brand exploring different styles and experimenting, to basically just selling neck oil because Heineken bought them.

  3. Founder Logan Plant is Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant’s son not Roger Daltry’s.

  4. Hi OP, I think the co-founder’s dad is Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, not Roger Daltrey from The Who.

  5. Is it just me or did neck oil used to taste more… oily before 2022?

  6. I’ve always wondered if pubs pay for branded pint glasses or are they supplied for free by the brewery

  8. I think the actual growth levers were having an absolutely loaded dad that let them move into Tottenham Hale and ramp up production whenever they wanted instead of organically growing. 
    Another one would be the sale to Heineken that let them into thousands of pubs instantly and all the supermarkets thereafter while building a super brewery in Enfield.  

      
    I worked there for a few years pre Heineken and it was genuinely the best most fun place I’ve ever worked and I learned loads.  It’s disappointing to real craft beer fans what they’ve become but I can’t deny that they absolutely smashed it and are smashing it.

  9. They aren’t as culty as Brewdog who are pretty insufferable

  10. Pay per view: Logan Plant v James Watt fighting for biggest beer nause

  11. There was an arms race to get to a size to be bought up. A few London breweries were trying to get to that point and Beavertown was the one that managed it.

  12. I’m a little confused about this article, pretty much all of it is post-Heineken investment, without much in the way of what got them to that stage. Or is that the implication, that they only became cultish due to Heineken?

    Also no mention of the link up with Tottenham Hotspur either. Having a brewery in the stadium, opening a bar opposite it, and selling collab shirts/merchandise in the club shop feels like it should be something to mention.

  13. Neck Oil is peak enshittification. Before the takeover, it was an active reason to drink in a pub. For about 6 months afterwards, it was still good but suddenly it was everywhere – a golden age of pubs that would never normally serve craft beer selling it. Then they massively reduced the hoppiness and acidity, presumably to save money on production, and now even a lot of pubs that think it would be a good idea to have a craft IPA on tap serve Neck Oil and imagine they have that covered, when actually it’s flavourless macro pish. And most of the ones that don’t have some other such junk, like Camden Pale or something. 

    Soundwave appears to be going the same way; I fear Hepcat and Steady Rolling Man will be next. 

  14. I enjoyed this article, I didn’t know about those campaigns like the bar stool and sunscreen. Interesting company

  15. Really enjoying this series, keep up the good work. One very pedantic point though, these are not levers! 

  16. I drank so much Neck Oil over the years that I can no longer stand it.

  17. I enjoy the beer. Logan (from what I know) is a good dude too. Oh and Zep are my favorite band!!!

  18. I think the really important factor is their founder is the son of Robert Plant

  19. They do lots of sponsorship at my local climbing wall, so that makes me like them more.

  20. I was on the periphery in the early days when they started brewing in Dukes Brew and Cue. They started making their own beer in the basement, got a little tour around – it was a proper little indy operation. If you’d seen it, you probably wouldn’t have drunk it. They made some interesting stuff in the early days so it’s a shame that what they make now is 95% neck oil but hey, it makes money.
    The guy who did the illustrations used to work behind the bar – I hope he gets a decent income from it now that it’s huge.

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