A year after its founding, the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA) has more than doubled its membership to more than 90 beverage companies across beer, wine and spirits.
ANBA – established in July 2021 – launched publicly last December with 40 founding members to be a unifying voice for non-alcoholic (NA) beverage producers. The global industry trade organization works to educate producers, retailers, suppliers and consumers on NA beverages, best practices and availability, while also advocating for policy and government affairs strategies to protect its members.
ANBA CEO Marcos Salazar hosted a virtual roundtable discussion with a handful of ANBA members Wednesday to recap the group’s first year and its plans for 2023. The panel included: Bill Shufelt, co-founder and CEO of Athletic Brewing; Paul Gloster, CMO of Lyre’s non-alcoholic spirits; Anika Sawni, co-founder of Gruvi; and Pauline Idogho, founder and CEO of Mocktail Club.
“[ANBA is] really trying to pull this industry forward from a leadership perspective,” said Shufelt, who also serves as ANBA North American board chair. “Really good food safety, quality governance, regulatory standards, and just helping share a lot of the lessons that we’ve learned by driving to every ditch.”
ANBA is about to launch a United Kingdom/European Union chapter, joining the North American chapter it launched in 2021. It also plans to add chapters to represent Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa in the future.
“We really want to organize and support producers as well as consumers across the globe right off the bat as we’re growing this association,” Salazar said.
Wednesday’s panel served as a precursor to “Dry January,” now less than two weeks away. Participation in the month of abstaining from bev-alc has been “continually growing” year-over-year both in the U.S. and globally, Salazar said. He predicts that not only with “more and more” people participating in the future, but now, with so many NA options available across bev-alc, consumers will start to continue that “journey” of moderation past the month of January.
“We’ve kind of seen the evolution of these dry periods over the course of time from being a bit of a novelty to actually being something that people are undertaking as a serious thing and then going back and doing it again and again and again,” Gloster said.
“The other thing that we’re seeing from a consumer perspective is that the person who used to be the non-drinker was often the person that was a little bit ostracized, or a little bit unusual from the pack, or not quite fitting into the social occasion,” he continued. “Whereas now that we have some momentum around, particularly these dry periods and beyond … it’s their opportunity to actually be the expert, to actually show that you can have a period where you’re not drinking alcohol and still be sociable and still have a really high quality drink in your hand.”
Increased NA adoption from both consumers and suppliers comes with the need for further education, Salazar said. The segment faces food safety concerns beyond traditional bev-alc considerations.
“What’s unique about adult non-alcoholic beverages is that since they don’t have alcohol – alcohol tends to be a preservative that kills bacteria and microbes and a number of other things,” Salazar said. “It’s actually a really important challenge for our members to have to overcome to ensure that one, the products are high quality and good tasting; two, that they’re shelf stable; and then that they can last for extended periods of time on the shelf.”
Athletic Brewing has spearheaded non-alc education while continuing its rapid growth. The Stratford, Connecticut-based company expanded distribution to all 50 states in September, allowing the company to launch its first national media campaign for Dry January in 2023. The campaign – the company’s “biggest investment ever” – aims to “help people envision non-alcoholic beer in all different parts of their life, rather than this hurdle,” and will feature Athletic’s celebrity investors and athletes “doing everyday aspirational things that people can visualize themselves doing,” Shufelt said.
While the NA beer segment is only 0.6% of total beer dollar sales in IRI-tracked channels (multi-outlet plus convenience), that’s double the segment’s share when Athletic launched, Shufelt said. The segment is only one of four within the beer category to grow dollar share year-to-date through November 27, along with imports, domestic super premiums and flavored malt beverages (FMBs), according to IRI.
When narrowed to the IRI-tracked food channel, NA beer’s share increased to 1.45% of beer dollar sales through November 27, a +0.22% increase year-over-year. Narrowed even further to Whole Foods, a “early adopter” of NA beverages, NA beer represents 8.3% of beer sales nationally for the grocery chain, according to Shufelt.
“This past year, we’ve really seen retailers and a lot of the big chains open up to the category and start to create the shelf space and expand their shelf space for it,” Sawni said. “And this year, we’re seeing that happen more and more with on-premise bars and restaurants developing more in-depth menus and having NA sections.”
2023 may be a “tipping point” for the NA segment, with options across beer, wine and spirits beginning to populate more menus at bars and restaurants and other “places you go and visit for social occasions,” Salazar said.