We are Alex McDivitt and Tommy Watt, veterans ourselves, we served with the British Army for 22 years and completed operational tours in Northern Ireland, the Balkans and the Middle East.
We want to help other veterans who are perhaps finding it more difficult to integrate into civilian life. Our plan is to train and employ veterans at our brewery, initially in Scotland and then in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as our business expands.
We need your help to raise £30k to start us on that journey to having our own brewery. This money will fund premises and equipment, and training the first of our veterans.
We are currently in talks with the owners of our first proposed location just outside Glasgow. If you back us and give us your financial support, we could be training and employing veterans in our own premises by Spring 2017.
“As veterans, we’re painfully aware of the need to support ex-services personnel who retire or are invalided out into civilian life,” said Alex.
“We have an ambitious plan to employ hundreds of veterans across the UK from our base in Scotland. We want to create and develop four brewing and bottling plants, in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where each plant will support and employ veterans in those regions.”
According to Tommy, the future for many veterans is bleak, and the statistics paint a harsh picture of suicides, unemployment, criminal activity . “There were 50 suicides last year, 29 veterans and 21 service personnel and 10% of the UK’s prison population is made up of veterans.
“We want to help address these issues and offer support, a lifeline, to veterans and their families.”
Alex and Tommy are experienced, committed and down to earth veterans with a vision to support fellow veterans through business. They have made a success since leaving the British Army, but they know from personal experience that it’s hard for ex-servicemen and women to be reintroduced to civvy street after life in the military.
That’s why they want to create a business with a military theme that will provide a comfort zone the veterans can relate to; somewhere they know they’ll be understood and where the processes, tasks and day to day activities reflect the lifestyle they’re used to.
Alex and Tommy are asking for your help.
“This is real teamwork, we need to harness your commitment and passion to help our colleagues. We won’t give up the fight to support our veterans. We didn’t leave our colleagues on the battle ground, we won’t leave them now.”