C&C Group has blamed stock shortages for a collapse in Innis & Gunn sales since it acquired the brand in a £4.5m pre-pack administration in March.
Over the last three months, Innis & Gunn has suffered an off-trade sales decline comparable to that of BrewDog, with value plummeting by over 50% year-on-year [NIQ 12 w/e 16 May 2026].
Some lines have lost as much as two-thirds of their value, and weighted distribution has fallen on all but one of its five best-sellers since last year.
Meanwhile, sources told The Grocer that Innis & Gunn had all but disappeared in retail settings in Scotland, where previously it had thousands of listings across major grocers.
“C&C Group have never come out and said ‘we are delisting off-trade SKUs’, but they’ve effectively switched off one of the business’s biggest channels,” one source said.
Another beer industry source added: “It has disappeared. Even the lager and IPA have gone from all shelves now.”
Analysis by The Grocer shows 14 (42%) of the 34 Innis & Gunn SKUs stocked across Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco stores in Scotland in March are presently out of stock [Assosia 14 w/e 11 June 2026].
They include 4x440ml packs of Session IPA and Lager in Sainsbury’s, and 4x440ml packs of Lager in Tesco.
‘Temporary stock impact’
Approached for comment, a spokesperson for C&C Group said Innis & Gunn’s administration had resulted in “a temporary impact on stock availability across some parts of grocery and convenience, which has impacted sales in the short term”.
“This was anticipated at the point of acquisition, with time needed to fully integrate the brand and all off-trade SKUs into our business operations,” the spokesperson insisted.
This is at odds with communication made by C&C at the time of acquisition, however, when its board said that – thanks to the 8% stake it already held in Innis & Gunn – it expected “a rapid operational transition and minimal disruption to the business”.
At its peak, Innis & Gunn was the number two craft brewer in the UK off-trade and the number one craft lager in Scotland – although off-trade sales fell 15.1% to just £9.4m in the year to last April [NIQ 52 we 18 April 2026].
Much like BrewDog, the pre-pack sale of Innis & Gunn in March resulted in thousands of crowdfunding investors losing their stake in the business, as well as the loss of 100 jobs.
“The off-trade remains strategically important to the Innis & Gunn brand and we continue to work closely with our retail partners on plans for the remainder of 2026 and beyond,” the C&C spokesperson said. “Our focus is on rebuilding momentum for the brand through improved availability, strong customer partnerships, and an exciting programme of marketing activity across the year.”
Social media silence
However, three months on from its rescue by C&C Group, Innis & Gunn still does not have a functioning website and – at the time of writing – had not posted on social media since 17 March.
The brand’s social media channels would “relaunch this week” ahead of activations at the Royal Highland Show, Belladrum, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and The Reeling, the spokesperson said.
“As part of the acquisition we secured the Innis & Gunn domain and brand assets, but not the website. A new site is currently being built and will be live later this year,” they added.
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