M&S withdraws ‘Craft Beer Co’ t-shirt following complaint by Craft Beer Co

M&S is withdrawing brewery-themed t-shirt from the shelves so that it can investigate a complaint from a London-based beer company whose name it was using.

The M&S Collection shirt has the words ‘Craft Beer Co’ emblazoned on its logo.

On Wednesday, Craft Beer Co, which was founded in Clerkenwell in 2011, tweeted: “Hey @marksandspencer what’s the idea with these T shirts!? Can we expect a royalties cheque in the post!? Surely one Iconic British Institution shouldn’t be ripping off another…!!?”

A spokesperson for M&S told LondonWorld on Thursday: “We take intellectual property very seriously and, while the t-shirt was designed in good faith, we’ve taken the decision to remove the product from sale so we can investigate further.”

Craft Beer Co’s tweet attracted dozens of comments, including one person, who raised the similarity of part of the design to branding for Hoxton’s Great Beyond Beer Co.

Other Twitter users questioned called out M&S’s use of the phrase “for proper good blokes”.

Craft Beer Co was approached for comment.