Has NA Investment Reached A Tipping Point?
Whether through investment capital, celebrity launches, or new high-level sports sponsorships, one thing is clear - the money isn’t going to stop flowing around NA anytime soon.
Three recent announcements involving the NA beer world only serve to underscore an undeniable fact, which is the non-alcoholic sector remains red hot. Much of the media’s focus in the category (and for good reason) has been on the rapid growth of Athletic Brewing, which continues to rack up the accolades while it continues its rise as the widely-admired brand it has become. But other players in the category are making moves as well, which is a welcome sight for an industry looking to push its way deeper into consumer consciousness.
First came the news of BERO Brewing, launched by Hollywood A-lister Tom Holland, best known for being the most recent version of your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman. The English actor had been very public about his sobriety, and has now doubled-down on that lifestyle by putting considerable star power and political capital into the premium offering, which retails for $16 per six-pack. While that price point is no longer uncommon in the category, it’s also a far cry from where the industry used to be only a handful of years ago. Holland’s co-founder and CEO, John Herman, is an experienced beverage entrepreneur having built the energy drink brand Nutrabolt, which secured an $863 million investment from Keurig Dr. Pepper (also major investors in Athletic) back in 2022.
Just two days after the BERO announcement came news from Sausalito, California based Best Day Brewing that it had secured a total of $22.5 million in investments in 2024, which the barely two year old brewer indicated would go toward further expanding distribution. While they are not the only brand jockeying to be the #2 pure play behind industry-leading Athletic, their eight-figure investment haul in a single calendar year reflects an impressive ability to raise capital so soon in their history.
Finally, after having previously struck sports sponsorships with lifestyle entities such as the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team, New York-based Hedlum Brewing announced an official partnership with the New Jersey Devils of the NHL. While financial terms were not disclosed to indicate the magnitude of the sponsorship, it is nonetheless believed to be at least one of the first pure-play category sponsorships of a team in one of the major North American sports leagues, at a time when sports venues are under increased pressure to beef up their NA offerings for a more inclusive fan experience.
So what thread connects each of these late October announcements? Far from an October surprise given the industry’s recent growth, they reflect a growing confidence in investments made in and from non-alcoholic beer, beyond moves made by the already deep-pocketed macro brands, or Athletic Brewing, the single pure-play NA brewer that has garnered much of the attention paid to the category. As we sit just two months from the next Dry January, historically a busy time for NA announcements, it’s not hard to imagine more are on the way soon.