Industry AnalysisAlcohol Is So Passé: Owning the low-no alcohol space

What can alcohol brands learn from trendy low-and-no-alcohol competitor brands?

• • While the likes of Heineken and Budweiser have been diversifying and building their non-alcoholic beers in recent years, this is a category that spirits brands will benefit from moving into, or building partnerships in. Building relevance with the growing no-low-alcohol segment is a long term investment. Low and no ABV is only set to grow.
  • Since the products themselves are fresh, and new, it’s no surprise, this new category of drinks (Ghia, Seedlip etc.) comes with a fresh brand perspective. Ghia elegantly presents itself as a compliment to the modern lifestyle – with all the taste and flavour of a classic aperitif, but with added wellness perks (no sugar, all natural, mood-boosting). The call to action with recipes makes it even easier for us to add Ghia to our home drinks cabinet.

Alcohol is so passé.

I joke. It isn’t, I doubt it ever will be. Not within our lifetimes at least. But it’s slightly less cool than it used to be, and non-alcoholic drinks are increasingly clawing a sort of nonchalant social currency.

Over the last few years we have seen newcomer low-and-no-alcohol brands not only creating a new drinks category for themselves, but also taking a small amount of alcohol’s market share.

This isn’t changing any time soon. We have seen brands like Seedlip come out of relative obscurity, only known to those in the know… To suddenly being available at any and every mainstream pub in London as a bougie substitute for gin or vodka (Hurrah for us who are fussy drinkers and the bartenders who finally know what we’re talking about at after work drinks with the team! The Garden 108 is my favourite flavour 😉 )

A 2019 IWSR report claimed that 52% of adult drinkers are trying to reduce their alcohol consumption in the USA, while 65% of 25-34 year olds in the UK are trying to cut back on their booze intake. The appetite for low-and-no-alcohol is set to grow.

While Seedlip is increasingly a household name, helped by the likes of drinks industry legend Mr Lyan advocating for them over the years who has been known to focus just as much on non-alcoholic cocktails as alcoholic cocktails at his bar Lyaness (formerly Dandelyan and World’s Best Bar 2018). Seedlip is now served in 7,500 locations globally, including the current World’s Best Bar 2020- Dante in New York City.

One of the primary concerns for wellness enthusiasts when it comes to their non-alcoholic drink of choice is the sugar content many are loaded with. Ghia is the new kid on the block –  with “all of the spirit, none of the booze”, this drink is a pure botanical extract that includes mood enhancing lemon balm. The brand tells us on its Instagram to give the bottle a good shake and put on some good music to set the mood before drinking. Vegan, and free of added sugars and artificial flavours, the no-alcohol aperitif fits perfectly into the lifestyle of the modern consumer while also nodding to the ever increasing popularity of Italian aperitif culture.

With each bottle arriving with a recipe book, Ghia is lending itself to effortlessly respect and compliment how its fans live.

We are going to give the The Hi Life mocktail a try as soon as we get our hands on a bottle.