'Sale of low- and no-alcohol beer almost doubles in five years'

Sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in five years as weaker versions of global brands such as Heineken and Budweiser helped convert drinkers from carbonated soft drinks, stated a recent report.

Drinkers in the UK bought £362 million of alcohol-free and low-alcohol brews in 2021, up from £191mn in 2016, according to research group IWSR, as they tapped into lower drinking rates among younger generations and fresh marketing drives by global brewers.

This included £146mn of “alcohol-free” beers, which have 0.5 per cent ABV (alcohol by volume) or less, a figure more than triple the £41mn of these products sold five years earlier, even though the overall beer market shrank.

Low-alcohol and no-alcohol brews account for 3.1 per cent of the UK’s beer market, IWSR said, compared with 2.7 per cent globally.

Financial Times cited Trevor Stirling, analyst at Bernstein, who said the country had become “one of the hotspots” for growth in low-alcohol and no-alcohol brewing.

“It’s an adult soft drink rather than a substitute for alcohol . . . the acceptance of the products is probably higher than I was expecting,” Stirling said.

UK innovations such as Brewdog’s Nanny State, launched in 2011, and Adnams’ Ghost Ship, launched in 2012, helped the UK market gain a head start, he said.

Fernando Tennenbaum, chief financial officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the world’s largest brewer was recording double-digit annual growth in low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers although until five years ago, no one was investing seriously in it [low and no alcohol].

The technology is evolving, he said, with brewers now extracting alcohol from finished beer rather than halting the process midway. Heineken’s launch of the 0.0 version of its flagship brand in 2017 was a pivotal moment, analysts said, together with its decision to use the alcohol-free version as sponsor for the Uefa Europa League and Formula One.