Athletic Brewing Company CEO Bill Shufelt Explains The Growth Behind The Non-Alcoholic Beer Industry

Forbes

Athletic Brewing Company CEO Bill Shufelt spoke about the growth of his company and the non-alcoholic beer industry.    Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

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.

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Transcript

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