Sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in five years as consumers take up new options coming to market, the Financial Times reports.
Consumers in the UK bought £362m of alcohol-free and low-alcohol beers in 2021, up from £191m in 2016, according to research group IWSR
This included £146m of “alcohol-free” beers, which have 0.5 per cent ABV (alcohol by volume) or less, a figure more than triple the £41m of these products sold five years earlier.
“While January has become a popular month for people to cut back or abstain from alcohol, interest in no and low alcohol drinks has increasingly become a year-round trend among consumers across the world,” says Emily Neill, COO of IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.
“To meet that demand, beverage alcohol companies have invested heavily to introduce a number of innovative new products, and many established mainstream brands have recently crossed over to develop no/low alcohol versions of their popular beer, wines, and spirits.”
These include innovations like Brewdog’s Nanny State, Adnams’ Ghost Ship, and options from Heineken and Peroni.
IWSR said moderation was the most common use of no/low products, with significant cross-over between no/low and alcohol consumers.
According to the research, 43% of adults across the focus markets say they are substituting those products in place of full-strength alcohol for certain occasions, rather than abstaining from alcohol overall.
The majority of no/low drinkers also enjoy standard strength alcohol too – only 17% of people report they are drinking no/low to avoid alcohol completely.
Among adults who have purchased no/low alcohol, 37% of people say the reason for doing so is to avoid the effects of drinking alcohol.
Evening occasions at home – including socialising and mealtimes – are the most popular times for no/low beverages across all demographics, millennials and higher-income consumers across markets are more likely to use no/low products to unwind or post-exercise.
The study found that only 5-6% of no/low consumers drink it after 11pm.
