South Africa: Ban on sale of alcohol offers strong growth trajectory to non-alcoholic beer

The ban on the sale of alcohol has catapulted South Africa’s non-alcoholic adult drinks industry to a strong growth trajectory, a trend that is expected to continue, the Business Live reported on January 24.

Johannes le Roux, founder and managing director of The Duchess Drinks Company, said the company’s non-alcoholic adult drinks brands revenue grew by 100% year on year in December 2020. He expects a similar performance in 2021.

The Duchess range has three alcohol-free gin and tonic brands — Botanical, Greenery and Floral — and two non-alcoholic wine spritzers — Elderflower and Berry Rose. The low or non-alcohol drinks company was created in 2016 for consumers who seek to reduce their intake of alcohol.

Le Roux said the lockdown “has fast-tracked the trends and movements of this market on a massive scale”, with the first lockdown a sampling phase that attracted new consumers.

Leanne Owens, adjacencies director at SAB, said sales of their non-alcoholic beer brands doubled or tripled during lockdowns, when the purchase of alcohol was banned.

AB InBev, which owns SAB, has a range of non-alcohol beers that include Castle Free, Becks Blue, and Budweiser Zero.

“The demand for the range has outstripped supply,” said Le Roux. This was in line with global trends, he said.

The global non-alcoholic wine and beer market was valued at $20 bln (about R300 bln) in 2018 and is anticipated to reach $30bn in 2025, according to the “Non-Alcoholic Wine and Beer Market” report published by Global Market Insights. But this is still far smaller than sales of alcoholic drinks, which reached $1.47-trillion in 2018 and are expected to increase to $1.75-trillion in 2024, according to Statista.com.

Owens said the growth of non-alcoholic brands in AB InBev’s global portfolio growth had doubled. The portfolio currently contributes 2% of the global business’s volumes.

AB InBev’s goal is to ensure that no- or lower-alcohol beer products represent at least 20% of the company’s global beer volume by the end of 2025.

25 January, 2021