Athletic Brewing Company CEO and co-founder Bill Shufelt shares how the non-alcoholic beer brand is constantly competing to be a Top 10 craft brew in the US.
A LOT of companies, including celebrities, are trying to tap into the non-alcoholic beer market, which is booming among consumers.
Bump Williams, CEO of Bump Williams Consulting, predicts growth for the next decade, with double-digit growth for at least the next five years.
“Drinking non-alcoholic beer today is not like 25 years ago when only people who drank it were recovering alcoholics. Today it is an accepted way of life,” said Williams. “”The new 21+ consumer is thinking more about health and wellness, control, balance and ‘taste/taste’ than ever before [non-alcoholic] buyers.”
Non-alcoholic beer, once seen as a big winner during Dry January and replacing alcoholic beverages, is making great strides in the industry, and in some cases, even outperforming its alcoholic counterpart, experts say. This shows that it is no longer a passing fad and the recent launch of Bero, a premium option created by CEO John Herman and actor Tom Holland, further emphasizes this change in consumer behavior.
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“People growing more aware of what they put into their bodies while not wanting to say no to moments of making memories will last.” Herman told Fox Business, adding that “non-alcoholic beer is very close to the real thing. The flavor and experience is very much 1 to 1. Some of the other categories don’t have the same 1 to 1.”
The company began distributing its product to restaurants across New York and Los Angeles this week.
Bero, a new premium non-alcoholic beverage, launched in the US this week. (Bero)
Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein said “super premium creation [non-alcoholic beer] like Bero,” as one of the many drivers behind the growth of their category.
But he also highlighted several other key factors contributing to the trend, including a growing emphasis on standardization and improvements in brewing technology that have led to better-tasting non-alcoholic beers, and the “marketing muscle” of big companies like AB-InBev, Constellation Brands, and Molson. Coors has been actively involved in developing non-alcoholic versions of their beers that offer unique flavor profiles.
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“All of this creates a critical mass between beer distributors and retailers who ensure the category and make the product easily available abroad,” said Ottenstein. “In restaurants and shops, consumers expect to see [non-alcoholic] beers and their ever-increasing variety.”
Bero founders Tom Holland and John Herman. (Bero)
Ottenstein pointed out that “the category should continue to grow much faster than regular beer and at times could be 5% or more of the total market in the US”
It’s a long way from where the industry started.
Bill Shufelt, founder and CEO of Athletic Brewing Company, which currently holds more than 19% market share in the non-alcoholic beer segment, said the demand for beer is “at an all-time high.”
Athletic Brewing Company Founder and CEO Bill Shufelt. (Athletic Brewing Company.)
In 2018, when the company launched its beer commercially, non-alcoholic beer was “a very dormant segment,” accounting for only 0.3% of total beer sales, according to Shufelt.
“When we launched in 2018, many industry experts scoffed at the idea of building a brewery that focused on non-alcoholic beer,” he said. “They asked if there was enough consumer demand for non-alcoholic beer to support our ambitions and urged us to consider making a full-strength beer. Thank goodness we didn’t listen.”
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Can of Athletic Brewing Company’s non-alcoholic beer. (Brewery company)
Today, this category is growing faster than any other segment of beer, he said, adding that “a record number of Americans, 45%, now believe that drinking one to two drinks a day is bad for their health.”
He cited data from global marketing research firm NIQ that shows how non-alcoholic beer sales will increase from $135.2 million in 2018 to $487.3 million in 2023.
So far this year, sales have already exceeded $541 million.
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