Athletic Brewing Company CEO Bill Shufelt spoke about the growth of his company and the non-alcoholic beer industry.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, I'm Kat Oriel with Forbes.
00:04Today I'm here with Bill Schufeld, co-founder and CEO of Athletic Brewing Company.
00:08Bill, thanks so much for joining me today.
00:11Excited to be at the Summit.
00:12Excited to have you here.
00:13So can you tell me a little bit about your company?
00:15And I'm also curious about the name.
00:16Why is it called Athletic Brewing Company?
00:18For sure.
00:19So Athletic Brewing is out to revolutionize non-alcoholic beer for the modern adult lifestyle,
00:23basically.
00:24Like great beer, but none of the hangups of alcohol.
00:27So you can just get back to doing whatever you were doing and feel great the next day.
00:32With such declining alcohol usage rates in the country, non-alcoholic beers have been
00:35exploding the last six years since Athletic launched.
00:38We are the number one non-alcoholic beer producer in the country now, bigger than all the multinationals.
00:43So it's been really fun just bringing great beer to people who have been really underserved.
00:48The name Athletic Brewing itself is just meant to be positive and aspirational.
00:52Non-alcoholic beer was always this like penalty box, like thing you drank when you weren't
00:56really part of the occasion.
00:58And we wanted to bring it to the totally next level and make it an awesome, fun word that
01:03people could be proud of.
01:04Right.
01:05As you're saying, there was a stigma, I feel like, before.
01:08And I feel like post-COVID, there's been less of a stigma.
01:11A lot of people are like focusing on their health and being more sober curious.
01:14But you were at the forefront before COVID started.
01:17You've been at this company since 2017.
01:19So how did you overcome that stigma when you were first starting out as a company?
01:26A real dedication to quality and just making awesome beer.
01:30We want our beers to be the best part of our customers' days every day when they crack
01:34one.
01:35I can speak for that as a customer myself.
01:37I'm drinking two or three Athletics a day because it's the best part of my day.
01:41It goes great with every meal I have.
01:42It's super flexible in my lifestyle.
01:44It's usually about a third of the calories versus alcohol equivalent beer.
01:48It's really great in today's modern life.
01:51It's that uncompromising quality.
01:54Our breweries are some of the biggest breweries and labs dedicated in the world to non-alcoholic
01:58beer.
01:59So a relentless focus on quality, too.
02:01Do you feel like people are ever hesitant to stop drinking and just switch over to non-alcoholic
02:08beer?
02:09And if so, what would you tell them of why they should make the switch?
02:12Well, originally, we saw a lot of that.
02:14But in this day and age, with alcohol becoming less and less a part of the modern lifestyle,
02:21it's in the narrower and narrower occasions.
02:24And more and more people drink alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks within the same occasion,
02:28too.
02:29So generally, I like to challenge people to take a six-pack test.
02:32Put a six-pack of Athletic beers in your fridge next to your favorite full-strength alcoholic
02:36whatever, and you'll be shocked at how fast the non-alcoholic version goes.
02:40So what's next for this industry?
02:42Are there any trends we should keep an eye out on?
02:46I think it won't necessarily be shocking.
02:49I think it's just like a tidal wave where it's going to be gaining momentum for generations
02:52to come.
02:54In some channels, non-alcoholic beer is already almost 20% of all beer.
02:58Nationally, it's about 2% of all beer.
03:00So I think that's going to sneak up on people, how big a category this gets really fast.
03:06Alcoholic beer is almost as big a category as soda in this country.
03:09So it's fishing in very big waters.
03:11Well, thank you so much.