With the changing times, people have become more inclined towards healthy eating and healthy living. Considering the shift, companies have also started understanding the consumer base of healthy non-alcoholic beverages and have delivered as per their preference.
Joining in the business opportunity, United Breweries, the makers of Kingfisher beer, have launched 2 non-alcoholic beverages. Kingfisher Radler is a malt and fruit juice mix that was introduced in 2018 in India. While Heineken 0.0 was launched in 2019 and is a non-alcoholic beer.
AB InBev, the makers of Budweiser beer, also tried their hand into the non-alcoholic beer segment in 2019 with Budweiser 0.0 and Hoegaarden 0.0.
Ginger Ale has also become a popular alternative for non-alcoholic beverage consumers. Many brands like Schweppes have introduced their own Ginger Ales that have gained a lot of attention from both non-alcoholic and alcohol lovers.
To give these beverages an interesting twist, many brands like Svami have even introduced the non-alcoholic versions of the famous gin & tonic and rum & coke.
Due to a more woke and health-conscious youth in the country, the beverage choice has witnessed a huge shift from standard-strength beer to low- or no-alcohol versions (LNA). As per the latest study, around 41% of young beer drinkers are willing to switch to low or no-alcohol beers.
Considering the Indian market, these non-alcoholic beverages could gain a lot of momentum but they do have the well establishes soft drinks segment to compete with. Though these non-alcoholic beverages do have the upper hand with representing the health factor they possess and low sugar content they have, soft drinks, however, have the price advantage.
Rushikesh Aravkar, food and drink analyst, Mintel India said, “As the demand for LNA beers increases and more mainstream beverage brands enter this category, non-alcoholic beers can start competing with adjacent categories such as carbonated soft drinks and juices.”
