Rarely can a company’s entire strategy be summarized in a single sentence: “the trend is to drink 0.0 beer, it invites you to have two or even three.” It was said the other day by Javier Soriano, brewmaster at Cruzcampo in an ABC interview and there it is all.
In a world where alcohol consumption is collapsing, the only segment that seems to be holding on is non-alcoholic beer. So yes, Soriano’s comment has a basis of truth, but also a hope: the only one the sector has left to survive.
What’s new in all this? For years, alcoholic beverage companies used ‘non-alcoholic’ versions to circumvent advertising regulations which prohibited more and more spaces from the usual formats.
Can our 37-year-old whiskey no longer be advertised at sporting events? No problem, we have released a 0.0 whiskey that, coincidentally, has the same brand image.
What is new, however, is that little by little the 0.0 are growing above expectations. It is no longer a marketing strategy, nor a minor niche: according to global data from IWSRthe global volume of alcoholic beverages fell by 2% in 2025 and the only thing that grew is non-alcoholic beer (8% in volume and 12% in value).
It’s not just that it’s going well, it’s that it’s the only thing that’s not going wrong. And the sector needs it. In fact, the same plans of the big brewers leave them black on white: AB InBev wants the non- and low-alcohol to be 20% of its global volume; Carlsberg, 35% of your portfolio in 2032; Heineken is on the same line.
And what does it have to do with us? Spain is not only the second largest beer producer in the EU, but it is the queen of the ‘low alcohol’ sector: one in every seven beers drunk here is already withoutand the employers boast of hoarding 25% of all European consumption of without.
That is to say, Spain has become the great world laboratory of the transition from alcoholic to non-alcoholic beverages. And that (or precisely because of that) weekly drinkers have gone from 48.4% in 2006 to 31.1% in 2023. In young people, in fact, the drop is brutal: habitual consumption has been reduced around 60% in two decades.
Being aware of the strategies of the breweries is interesting because they are all looking at our country.
“Strategies”? It is the best way to call them. Unfortunately, in recent years we have seen all kinds of strategies to consolidate unhealthy practices that support huge industries. The clearest are tobacco companies focused on “harm reduction” as a (“socially responsible”) way to maintain tobacco consumption.
It is reasonable to doubt the good intentions of the breweries and there is already data that suggests that we do well not to trust.
The elephant in the room. But, above all, it is a strategy because the sector is not only preparing for a clear trend; is preparing for the impact that drugs like Ozempic can have on alcohol consumption.
We already know that it reduces itWhat we don’t know is how far it can go. And breweries know that it is in their best interest to be prepared for what may happen.
Image | engin akyurt
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