James Watt, the co-founder and former chief executive of BrewDog, has announced he is submitting a new bid to buy the brand back.

The entrepreneur said his new brewery venture Second Best had submitted a formal bid to purchase BrewDog from its current owner, Tilray Brands, for an undisclosed sum.

Watt launched Second Best in May and announced that up to 19.3 per cent of the company would be allocated for Equity Punks, the term used for BrewDog’s crowdfunding investors.

Approximately 200,000 investors formerly backed BrewDog, sinking approximately £75 million into the company since the launch of its crowdfunding drive Equity for Punks in 2009. BrewDog went into administration on March 2 and was bought by Tilray Brands for £33 million, leaving all retail investors with no return.

“If we succeed, every registered punk gets their BrewDog equity back, for free,” Watt wrote on LinkedIn.

“We'd also restore the Real Living Wage, bring back the team’s equity, and put the community back at the heart of the business. The punks and the crew built this company and BrewDog deserves to belong to them once more.”

Sky News first reported that Watt was preparing a £10 million takeover bid in February, using his own money and backed by private equity.

In June, Tilray’s chief executive, Irwin D. Simon, told the Times that his firm had invested £50 million into BrewDog since the acquisition.

In July, BrewDog’s chief executive James Taylor stood down after just over a year in the role. Tilray has since announced it will manage the beer brand directly and not seek to replace Taylor.

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