We were delighted to read last week’s article in Nasdaq. We believe in a world of delicious alcohol-free beverages and so do our customers, which is why we are doing so well. But it turns out that there is more, that the 0.0 beverage industry is a booming business. If Nasdaq, the largest automated and electronic stock exchange in the United States, backs alcohol-free beverages as a business, something is right in the world.
The Blue Dolphin Store wasn’t born out of a desire to get rich (although that’s always desirable), but to satisfy a somewhat selfish whim: if the bars and restaurants we frequented couldn’t find the alcohol-free beverages we liked, we might as well provide them. There was a gap in the market and we were going to fill it, for the simple satisfaction that going out for a non-alcoholic drink was not an eccentricity, but something as normal as ordering a sugar-free soft drink. Or a decaffeinated coffee. Well, that, and then some, because everything has a story.
There are many reasons
Everyone has their own, their own particular reason for drinking alcohol-free beverages, whether it’s to lose weight, because they don’t like alcohol, because of pregnancy or injury, because they have to drive or work, because they want to be physically and mentally fit, for whatever reason.
According to a survey by Kisaco Research, the reasons cited by respondents for drinking non-alcoholic beverages are: “To avoid the effects of alcohol consumption” at 41%, followed by “I like the taste” (39%), “To reduce my alcohol consumption” (37%) and “As a healthy lifestyle choice” (30%).
Alcohol-free beer was a pioneer
The first to realise the demand for alcohol-free beverages was the brewing industry. Seeing first-hand how they were losing the customers who sought alcohol-free beer, they began to bring very low or non-alcoholic products to market: since 2016, industry giants have been investing fortunes in improving the taste of their de-alcoholised beers.
From Heineken to Anheuser-Busch InBev SA – the company that produces Budweiser, Corona Extra, Stella Artois and Beck’s – to Japan’s Asashi and Italy’s Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Now that investment has been paying off for some time. Alcohol-free beverages as a business, who would have said it?
Small craft beer companies have joined the big ones: Big Drop, Nirvana or that local jewel, La Chula, which produces one of the best non-alcoholic craft beers, La Chula sin pecado. This is due to the quality of the product, it is difficult to differentiate the taste of good alcohol-free beer from the original product.
Alcohol-free beverages as a business in a growing market
Beer is soon followed by non-alcoholic spirits and non-alcoholic wines. Non-alcoholic gin is becoming fashionable in this gin and tonic era, and the wine industry does not want to miss out. Far from damaging its image, offering a 0.0 product in its catalogue is now a sign of brand maturity.
Tanqueray launches Tanqueray 0.0 with great fanfare, a star product that sells out in the first month in supermarkets and online shops like our. Such is its success. Bodegas Torres launches three alcohol-free wines (not a drop) and a de-alcoholised sparkling wine with a taste identical to that of their stronger cousins. Therefore, it’s a smash hit.
What we at The Blue Dolphin Store started as a personal whim and a philosophy of life has become a trend. That’s something we are somehow glad about, a sign that times are changing. The label “alcohol-free” has shed the taboo of puritanism and is now synonymous with fun, class, adventure. But also profitability, profit and revenue.
