The move has been confirmed by BrewDog and via official documentation on Companies House.
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A spokesperson for the company confirmed: “BrewDog now sits under Tilray International and within this structure isn’t a requirement for a full-time chief executive.
“James successfully led BrewDog through its ownership transition. We thank him for his contributions and wish him every success in the future.”
The spokesperson added Taylor had steered the business through a restructure and its £33m sale to Tilray earlier this year and Lauren Carrol remains chief commercial officer at BrewDog, responsible for day-to-day operations for BrewDog and reports into Rajnish Ohri, who is President - International at Tilray Brands.
Taylor had been in the role since March 2025 having moved over to the job after serving as BrewDog’s chief financial officer – also for one year and five months – from November 2023 until March 2025.
Seamless transition
Taylor assumed the CEO job as James Arrow stepped down last year. BrewDog said at the time, as CFO, Taylor brought a wealth of financial and strategic expertise to the role after during a period of significant transition, which included returning the business to profitability in 2024 and described his appointment as a “seamless transition”.
BrewDog chairman Allan Leighton said in March 2025: “James Taylor has been an instrumental leader at BrewDog, steering the financial strategy and laying a strong foundation for profitable growth.
“His deep understanding of our business, coupled with his proven track record in operational excellence, makes him the ideal choice to guide BrewDog into its next chapter.”
In March this year, US pharmaceutical company and cannabis business Tilray finalised a deal to acquire the BrewDog brand and specific assets.
Phenomenal brand
The deal – overseen by AlixPartners – meant Tilray would take on brand ownership, intellectual property, UK brewing operations and 11 brewpubs in the UK and Ireland of BrewDog but 38 bars would close immediately, resulting in 484 redundancies.
Tilray said yesterday (30 June 2026) it has invested about £50m into BrewDog since its acquisition with its chief executive Irwin Simon stating he remained “really happy” with the decision to buy the Scottish business.
Simon said: “It’s a phenomenal brand, phenomenal assets, phenomenal opportunities. We probably put another £50m back into this business from a cash flow and an investment standpoint.
“We were the ones funding payroll and inventories, ingredients and stuff like that. It’s in a good place but there’s still a lot of work to do.”