As interest in non-alcoholic drinks grows, major alcohol brands are making moves with sober versions of well-known products like Guinness and Tanqueray gin.“If I was running an alcoholic beverage company ... this is not a space that I would ignore,” said Joel Gregoire, associate director for food and drink at market research company Mintel.
“When you're trying to grow your brand with younger consumers, who are the ones who are generally most open to innovation ... that's where there's a lot of opportunity,” he said. Kate has also noticed a growing trend in acquisitions of these small brands, such as Keurig Dr Pepper buying the ready-to-drink non-alcoholic cocktail brand Atypique from a Quebec company.
“They're doing the smart thing,” said Kate. “They've done a ton of research into what works in a non-alcoholic format as well as what's popular.” “This is something we've been working on for quite some time,” she said. “But the reality is that the rapid change in consumer habits has given us the opportunity to offer more versatility and come to market quicker, knowing that the demand is there versus us trying to create the demand back in 2017, 2018.”