• BrewDog cofounder James Watt has criticized the UK's work culture.
• Watt said the UK was "one of world's least work-oriented countries."
• Watt stepped down as BrewDog CEO in 2024.

BrewDog cofounder James Watt said the UK was "one of the world's least work-oriented countries" as he criticized the idea of "work-life balance."

Appearing in an Instagram video alongside his fiancée, Georgia Toffolo, Watt initially said he believed "the whole concept of work-life balance was invented by people who hate the work that they do."

Watt said he and Toffolo instead believed in "work-life integration."

Watt received pushback over the post and later deleted it from Instagram, saying "the comments crossed the line from debate to personal abuse." However, he later reposted it with additional context.

In the new post, Watt made it clear that his content was "aimed at founders, entrepreneurs, and people who want to push their careers forward," adding that "most successful leaders I know don't separate work from life."

In a LinkedIn post, Watt then suggested the pushback may be linked to what he described as the UK's comparatively low work ethic.

"As a nation, we love to joke about the French being lazy, but the reality is that our output per hour is 13% lower than theirs," he wrote. "I've heard countless international leaders say that the UK's work ethic just doesn't stack up against other nations, especially the US."

He then went on to cite a 2023 study by the Policy Institute at King's College London that found the UK public ranked among the lowest internationally for the importance placed on work.

The study, which looked at 24 nations, including Italy, France, and Russia, found that British people were the least likely to say work was important in their lives and among the least likely to say that work should always come first.

"This isn't to say nobody in the UK works hard—I know that millions of you do and are relentlessly grafting every day," Watt added.

BrewDog was founded in 2007 in Scotland and soon found success as it shook up the craft beer scene with its bold, controversial marketing and its signature Punk IPA.

The company has since built a network of bars and breweries around the world. Its Columbus, Ohio site features a taproom, hotel, and brewery.

Watt stepped down as CEO of the company in 2024, after 17 years at the helm. His departure followed a number of controversies over the company's alleged treatment of staff.

In 2021, dozens of former employees wrote an open letter accusing the company and Watt of creating a "culture of fear" in which staff were treated "like objects."

Watt later apologized to the former employees, saying the company had "always tried to do the best by our team."

"But the tweet we saw last night proves that on many occasions we haven't got it right. We are committed to doing better, not just as a reaction to this, but always; and we are going to reach out to our entire team past and present to learn more. But most of all, right now, we are sorry," he added.

In January 2024, BrewDog also faced fallout after it emerged it would no longer hire new staff on the real living wage, instead paying the lower legal minimum wage.

• Viral imitations of Hermès' Birkin bag have boosted awareness of Walmart's e-commerce marketplace.
• The positive attention is a tailwind as Walmart aims to take on Amazon's online dominance.
• But dupes like the so-called Wirkin also pose a challenge for the retailer's brand relationships.

For all of the fanfare they received last month, the internet-famous dupes of the ultra-luxe Birkin handbags have been disappearing from Walmart's e-commerce marketplace.

Walmart itself has been fairly quiet about the trend.

"In some instances, products may no longer be available," a Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider, declining to comment on the items specifically. The spokesperson added that the company encourages shoppers to explore its website for "exciting alternatives."

The frenzy around these imitation luxury accessories, available for a fraction of the price of the designer versions, highlights how such an increase in attention can be a somewhat mixed bag for online platforms like Walmart. An imitation bag going viral on TikTok can bring publicity to an online marketplace while also posing legal and reputational risks for brand owners.

"The Birkin dupes on Walmart's site have attracted such attention because of the juxtaposition of a very price-focused brand and a very aspirational product," GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders told BI. "It underlines how much its marketplace has evolved over recent years. Walmart has been actively expanding the offer to attract more consumers, especially younger and more affluent ones."

Walmart executives have touted the massive assortment of products available via third-party sellers in its online marketplace, which launched in 2009. Last quarter, CEO Doug McMillon said the SKU count is approaching 700 million items — a figure that dwarfs the 120,000 SKUs typically carried in a Walmart Supercenter.

McMillon has spoken at length about how important a huge selection of products is for Walmart to become the first place shoppers think of when they need anything from a dozen eggs sold by Walmart to a pair of sneakers from a third-party seller.

"When somebody thinks about buying anything and they want to go search or they want to go find a specific item, we want to be in that consideration set and that requires 1P and 3P," he said in a September 2023 earnings call, referring to first-party and third-party goods.

Amazon largely achieved this place in American consumers' minds by offering more than 600 million products on its site, of which 588 million are sold by third-party vendors, according to Capital One.

But what happens when sellers offer — and shoppers want — products that might infringe on another company's intellectual property rights?

Neither Walmart nor Hermès have said publicly whether an official complaint was filed, but McMillon has often said the company prizes its brand partnerships and wants to keep suppliers happy.

That position could lead the company to take a more cautious approach with potentially risky listings.

While many of the listings for the imitation Birkin bags are no longer available on Walmart's website, similar bags can be found on some of its e-commerce rivals.

As of Wednesday, a third-party seller on Amazon was offering a $100 "Wirkin welmes" leather handbag, using keywords that were popularized in reference to the delisted dupes on Walmart.com. Amazon didn't respond to BI's request for comment.

Balancing new customer awareness with protecting brands could help explain Walmart's relatively low-key handling of the Wirkin trend publicly. However, this likely won't be the last time the company will have to thread this needle.

Opening the marketplace to an ever-larger number of sellers means there will be no shortage of listings that will go on to be deleted. Those future listings will likely come and go with less attention as more people realize Walmart's offering goes well beyond its physical stores.

If anything, the kerfuffle over the Wirkin shows that Walmart's marketplace ambitions have reached a key milestone, attracting a level of viral attention in league with existing titans like Amazon and eBay.

Samsung has held the crown of the world’s largest smartphone maker for years, but Apple has been challenging that for a while and, in 2024, the iPhone seemingly dethroned the largest Android maker.