The onset of ‘Dry January’, a month in which many people avoid alcohol, often brings more attention to non-alcoholic beverages. But the CEO of one of the leading non-alcoholic beer companies said demand for non-alcoholic beer is exploding within a month.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for in this category,” Bill Shufelt, CEO of Athletic Brewing, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.
Long a sleepy category in the broader beer industry, non-alcoholic beer has seen its dizzying growth in recent years as larger beer giants like AB InBev and heineken launch of new products as well as the emergence of independent brewers such as Athletic Brewing. AB Inbev, which owns brands such as Budweiser, Corona, Michelob and Modelo, has previously set a target of producing 20% of its production of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beer by 2025.
The lack of quality non-alcoholic beer options was the impetus for Shufelt, a former trader at Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, to start the Connecticut-based company in 2017, which focuses solely on the company. focus on non-alcoholic beer production.
“[Non-alcoholic beer] went from being a mere 0.3% of the beer and canned beverage category completely rethought and punished to something truly exciting, aspirational, and the kind that reshaped the way of thinking. of modern adults,” says Shufelt.
Shufelt says non-alcoholic beer now makes up more than 2% of all beer sold at U.S. grocery stores, and at some national retail chains it makes up as much as 8% of their beer portfolio.
Beer cans are packed at Athletic Brewing’s non-alcoholic brewing and brewing plant on March 20, 2019 in Stratford, Connecticut.
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Growth of the non-alcoholic beer industry
With more and more consumers choosing non-alcoholic beer towards healthier alternatives and safer drinking habits, the global non-alcoholic beer market has grown to $22 billion by 2022. According to GMI Insights, the project could reach $40 billion by 2032. According to Nielsen, non-alcoholic beer has grown 20% in the US in retail dollars in the past year.
However, non-alcoholic beer accounts for only a small percentage of the total global beer market, worth more than $750 billion.
But the growth of the overarching category has helped Athletic Brewing, which Shufelt says has a 55% share of the non-alcoholic craft beer market. Athletic Brewing has $37 million in revenue in 2021, a three-year revenue growth of 13.071%, according to Inc Magazine.
In November, Keurig Dr. Pepper invested $50 million in Athletic Brewing, receiving the same minority ownership shares as other top brewer investors such as TRB Advisors and Alliance Consumer Development. To date, Athletic Brewing has raised more than $175 million.
Shufelt said this latest investment allows Athletic Brewing to invest in its facilities in Connecticut and San Diego, helping the brewing company “become a completely different non-alcoholic brewer”.
“It’s an investment that nobody else has made in this category, so Athletic is really pushing it,” said Shufelt. “We’re overtaking the biggest brands in the overall category and are on track to be the number one player this year.”
