In a significant move for the UK drinks industry, C&C Group plc, the Irish company behind Tennent’s Lager and Magners cider, has acquired the Innis & Gunn brand and its global intellectual property for £4.5 million. The deal, announced on March 6, 2026, rescues the well-known Scottish craft beer label from administration, but comes at a steep human cost—over 100 jobs will be lost as the company’s brewery and taprooms close their doors.
The acquisition marks a new chapter for Innis & Gunn, a brand founded in Edinburgh in 2003 by Dougal Gunn Sharp. Once celebrated for its oak-aged beers and lagers, and with products featured in supermarkets and pubs across the UK, Innis & Gunn had grown steadily over the years, even acquiring the Inveralmond Brewery in Perth in 2016 through a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised more than £3 million. However, recent financial troubles proved insurmountable, leading the company into administration and prompting a quick sale of its assets.
C&C Group was no stranger to Innis & Gunn before this acquisition. The two companies had worked closely for years: C&C had been a minority shareholder since 2021, holding an 8% stake, and had brewed most of Innis & Gunn’s beers at its Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow since 2010. The Irish drinks giant also distributed Innis & Gunn’s products throughout the UK, leveraging its established operational, commercial, and supply chain infrastructure.
Roger White, CEO of C&C Group, expressed both satisfaction and empathy in a statement following the announcement. “We have worked with Innis & Gunn for many years and whilst it’s under difficult circumstances, we are delighted to bring the brand fully into our portfolio,” he said. “This is a compelling and highly synergistic opportunity to save a well-loved brand for which we currently brew most of the product. Our existing brewing and route-to-market platform allows us to integrate the brand effectively and quickly, supporting the ongoing supply of products to customers and consumers.”
Despite the positive outlook for the brand’s future under C&C’s stewardship, the acquisition has not come without pain. All 105 staff employed at Innis & Gunn’s pubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and its brewery in Perth will be made redundant. Administrators overseeing the sale, including Christopher Jon Bennett, Oliver Stuart Wright, and Samuel Alexander Ballinger, confirmed the difficult decision: “It is with deep regret that redundancies will need to be made. The administrators would like to thank all the employees of the companies for their hard work. We will continue to support those affected at this difficult time.” A small number of employees will remain temporarily to support the orderly closure of the brewery business and taprooms.
Dougal Gunn Sharp, Innis & Gunn’s founder, voiced his sorrow and pride as he reflected on the outcome. “I’m deeply sorry to everyone affected—particularly my colleagues who have lost their jobs and the shareholders who believed in what we were building,” he said. “This is a very difficult day. I’m immensely proud of everything our team achieved together, creating a distinctive Scottish beer brand enjoyed by customers at home and around the world. While this outcome is not what any of us hoped for, I’m glad the brand has found a home with C&C Group. We’ve worked closely with the team for many years and they have the scale, distribution and experience to take Innis & Gunn forward.”
The acquisition is expected to make a small positive contribution to C&C Group’s overall financial performance in fiscal year 2027, according to the company’s statements. With most of Innis & Gunn’s brewing already taking place at C&C’s facilities, management anticipates minimal disruption to business operations and little need for incremental overhead or capital investment. “The integration of Innis & Gunn into the group is expected to present a very low execution risk, with the brand being fully absorbed into the group’s existing operational, commercial and supply chain infrastructure,” C&C Group noted in its official release. The company plans to leverage its current brewing capacity and established routes to market to further develop the Innis & Gunn brand.
The deal comes at a time of transition for the UK’s craft beer sector. Just days before the Innis & Gunn news broke, Aberdeenshire-based BrewDog was sold to US firm Tilray in a £33 million deal, resulting in hundreds of job losses and disappointing thousands of small investors who had backed BrewDog’s “Equity for Punks” scheme. The parallels are hard to miss: both companies rode the wave of craft beer enthusiasm, expanded rapidly, and ultimately faced financial headwinds that forced dramatic changes in ownership and structure.
Private equity also played a role in Innis & Gunn’s journey. In 2017, L Catterton invested £15 million for a 27.9% stake in the business, helping fuel the brand’s ambitions. In 2018, Innis & Gunn announced plans to build a new brewery in Edinburgh, though these plans never came to fruition. The company’s most recent financial results—showing a loss of £747,000 for the year ending March 31, 2025—highlighted the mounting pressures, which were compounded by the departure of former CEO Patrick McMahon in June 2024 after a series of accounting mistakes and errors came to light.
Even in the face of losses, Innis & Gunn had announced plans in April 2025 to ramp up production at its Perth brewery from 25,000 hectolitres to 37,500 hectolitres per year, equivalent to about 6.6 million pints. But the realities of administration and the subsequent sale have now overtaken those ambitions.
For C&C Group, the acquisition adds another premium, well-established label to its growing portfolio, which already includes Tennent’s, Bulmers, Magners, and Caledonia Best. The group also distributes a number of wine brands in the UK market. Financially, C&C has shown resilience: its sales for the six months to August 31, 2025, were €825.7 million, with adjusted EBITDA growing 2% to €58.1 million, despite a 4% dip in sales. The company’s share price even rose 1.8% on the day of the announcement, reflecting cautious optimism among investors.
As the dust settles, the Innis & Gunn brand—born in Edinburgh, beloved by many, and now part of a larger drinks empire—will live on. Its beers will continue to flow, albeit under new management and without the staff who helped build its reputation. For the craft beer industry, the story is a sobering reminder of both the opportunities and vulnerabilities that come with rapid growth and changing market dynamics.