Drinking: Part 2 — Non-Drinker Drinkers & Non-Alcoholic Beverages

Good news — I suppose — for auto, life and health insurers. An industry that has been more or less on the fringes of success for a couple of decades is suddenly becoming quite popular.

We’re talking about non-alcoholic beverages.

Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association has a website and lots of information on non-alcoholic beverages and their growing popularity. The association has published some fascinating information on people drinking beverages that have the taste of alcohol but have no alcohol in them.

Weekly Industry News Editor Gary Wolcott is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for 35 years. He has been drinking NA beverages for decades. “The first few non-alcoholic beers were so-so. I tried out a couple of NA wines in the 1990s and they were sour like vinegar,” he said. “Over the years the beers have improved. A year or so ago I discovered a non-alcoholic rum. It tastes more like I remember whiskey tasting than how rum was flavored but it has been heavenly to drink something that’s close to real alcohol.”

The discovery of the non-alcoholic rum — he said — appears to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. “I went onto the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association website and was blown away. Apparently, they have improved wines and there are many other beverages available other than the rum I’ve tried,” he said. “And there are now bars and nightclubs strictly devoted to the non-alcoholic experience.”

Here are some interesting non-alcoholic information from the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association website:

Low or no alcohol businesses are now valued at $10 billion

That’s up from $7.8 billion in 2018

Percentage-wise, the category is outperforming regular alcohol sales

No or low volume alcohol sales will grow 8% between 2021 and 2025

Regular alcohol sales are expected to grow 7%

By 2025 NA wine & beer sales will grow from $20 billion in 2018 to over $30 billion

Non-alcoholic spirit drink sales rose 33% from 2019 to 2021

Dollar wise that translates to $331 million

75% of those surveyed say they will continue to drink NA beer, spirits and mocktails

64% are going to keep drinking alcohol free wine

From 2020 to 2021 non-alcoholic spirits sales grew 113.4%

Non-alcoholic beer sales rose 31.7%

Non-alcoholic wine sales jumped 39.4%

Most non-alcoholic spirit shoppers (52%) are female

69% of those buying NA products are millennials

Gen X purchases 22%

Generation Z and the baby boomers account for 8%

Source link: Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association