Diageo apologises to BrewDog over BII Scotland awards fiasco

Drinks giant Diageo has apologised to BrewDog and the BII in Scotland for its role in an incident which saw BrewDog denied an award for 'Bar Operator of the Year' at the 2012 BII Scotland Annual Awards.

BrewDog took to its website today to issue a strongly-worded statement against Diageo following the awards at Glasgow's Grand Central hotel on Sunday. In the post, BrewDog alleged that staff from Diageo, which sponsorted the BII event, insisted that BrewDog should not be presented with the trophy. And it claimed that Diageo staff threatened not to sponsor any future BII events if BrewDog was presented with the award.

The Scottish brewer also alleged that the company which had been presented with the award in BrewDog's place refused to accept it, partly because BrewDog's name had already been engraved on the trophy.

The post created a huge buzz on social networking site Twitter, where the article was shared and commented on to such an extent that the word "Diageo" began trending nationwide.

In a statement just released by Diageo, the company said: "There was a serious misjudgement by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Bar Operator of the Year Award, which does not reflect in anyway Diageo's corporate values and behaviour.

"We would like to apologise unreservedly to BrewDog and to the British Institute of Innkeeping for this error of judgement and we will be contacting both organisations imminently to express our regret for this unfortunate incident."

It is not clear at this stage whether BrewDog will now be presented with the award.

BII Scotland was not available for comment.