7 Predictions For The Non-Alcoholic Category In 2021

New beverages, new tools, new challenges, and an ethics decision for an entire segment

As the figures continue to pour in from what is expected to be the best performing Dry January in history, in terms of individual participants and non-alcoholic beverage sales, many are asking what comes next for this emerging category.

For Dry January participants, some, the Sober Tourists, a term coined by Tawny Lara to describe those who use Dry January to “try on sobriety”, will most likely return to drinking, mindfully. For others, the curious, who choose to continue wearing sobriety, or its lighter sibling the alcohol-free lifestyle, will find that a lot is still to come in the world of non-alcoholic beverages.

A brief history of the non-alcoholic beverage category

The emergence of a beverage category doesn’t happen overnight, especially one that has had to overcome public stigma. It’s been years in the making. If your arrival to the category is only weeks old, allow a moment to self-educate with a brief history of the non-alcoholic beverage category.

From 2017 to 2018 worldwide alcohol consumption declined 1.6%, in 2019 nearly 40% of global consumers reported a desire to decrease alcohol consumption for health reasons, a recent Nielsen report shared that 66% of millennials want to reduce alcohol consumption, Berenberg called Gen Z the Generation of Sobriety, and a Morning Consult poll revealed that 46% of adults have purchased a non-alcoholic beer or cocktail and 40% of drinking-age adults said they’re drinking less than they were five years ago. Last year, market research company IRI reported that the overall nonalcoholic beer market grew almost 39% to around $187 million. Today, several reports forecast that the global market for nonalcoholic drinks will grow by 32% to $30 billion by 2025.

As consumer attitudes shifted, so have the positions of major players in beverage.

AB InBev has pledged to increase no or low-alcohol beer to 20% of its global beer volume by the end of 2025. A quarter of Distill Ventures portfolio, the venture-capital arm of Diageo, is now devoted to non-alcoholic beverages…