HITTING THE BOOKS WITH OUR FINANCE TEAM

It takes a lot of different talents to create that beer you are lifting to your lips. Brewers – obviously. Procurement guys, packaging and maintenance, the people who crew our bars. But one thing that all of these varied teams need is someone to have their back when it comes to finance. So following on from our in depth look at our Brewing Team, Sales Crew and the BrewDog Sisterhood we figured the unsung heroics performed by our financial whizz-kids deserved the spotlight!

And if you’d like to join them on the BrewDog crew, check out our vacancies here.

Ben Press Cost Accountant

Ben’s job is – in theory – a simple one. Calculate exactly what each case or keg of beer leaving the production line has cost us to make. He then uses this to support our other teams in helping them make decisions on purchasing ingredients and how much it costs to brew. He has to be on the case from day one, or even before day one – “The most exiting projects at the moment are looking at the processes behind barrel-ageing beers and sour production ready for the Overworks going live.”

Efficiency and costings go hand in hand, and Ben checks our brewers can create amazing beers without breaking the bank (or breaking it too much, at least). Despite only joining BrewDog five months ago he has thrown himself into all of the other tasks that tend to present themselves in our brewery – such as pouring beers for our legion of Equity Punks. If you scored a beer from our beer truck at the most recent Beatnik Brewday, he likely served it up to you!

So how did Ben get to working with us from a degree in Accountancy and Finance? “After graduating I worked for a company that sold UPVC windows and it was so boring. I moved to a brewery in Bedford and developed a love of all things beery. Being a big fan of Punk IPA when a job came up that matched my skillset I knew that I wanted it, even though it meant moving my family five hundred miles from Bedford to Scotland. I’ve never looked back since!”

Gemma Dalgarno Management Accountant

Gemma started her BrewDog career as an Assisting Accountant here in Ellon, in a team of two, but things didn’t stay that way for very long. “Looking back, every day was a case of picking up something new and getting on with it,” she says. “We were growing at a fearsome rate and it was nonstop.” This underlines just how important it is that our crewmembers can work at BrewDog pace and be flexible as they go – but Gemma has aced everything thrown her way.

In fact, before she joined the good ship BrewDog she was a regular in our flagship Aberdeen bar, having grown up in the this part of the world! We love that so many people from Aberdeenshire end up on our roster – and for Gemma she has risen through the ranks of our finance team. The adaptability she learned from her starting point made it easy to transition into a role with our Management Accounts team where she is today.

Unlike Ben who had his doubts about pursuing a career crunching the numbers, Gemma had no reservations. “Coming straight out of school at the age of sixteen and landing my first job in an accounts department in a junior role, I knew being an accountant is what I wanted to do. The development I have had working with BrewDog for four years has been career changing, the doors that have been opened to a girl who left school and worked her way up – for me, life changing.”

Michael MacLugash Management Accountant

Six years in the oil industry gave Michael a background in translating his Management with Finance degree into the real world, but it was a single afternoon during those studies that proved pivotal in his career. A talk by our Captain James at Robert Gordon University had lodged in Michael’s mind and when he saw a Management Accountant role advertised on our website he went for it right away. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about applying for a job, never mind when I actually got told I’d been successful!”

His role at BrewDog is to compile and report on the monthly financial numbers, so that we can continue to grow as fast as we are in the best way possible. Any business is only as good as its figures and Michael helps our finance team give real-time data on all of projects we have on the go, ensuring everything is on track. And just as they help us develop, we do the same for them in turn.

“I am currently working towards my Chartered Accountancy exams and have received support and encouragement from BrewDog towards getting these finished. Once they are out of the way I can really see my career at BrewDog follow the business and grow!” We agree totally – our incredible people enhance their skillsets is many different ways, from moving through the Cicerone Scheme (which Michael is also doing) to similarly specialised training such as his upcoming exams.

This is just another indication of how we support our awesome staff, so if you figured a background in accounting might not leave you cut out for a switch of careers into the craft beer industry, then think again. Our incredible team of people possess backgrounds from all sectors – and if you have similar skills and could fit in alongside Ben, Gemma and Michael then check out the BrewDog HQ career opportunities right here!