Ben Branson is widely credited with pioneering the non-alcoholic spirits industry when in 2015 he launched Seedlip, the world's first distilled non-alcoholic spirit. Since selling a stake in Seedlip to Diageo, Branson has continued on his path to change the way the world drinks with Sylva, a U.K. distillery and maturation lab producing aged spirits from trees. He’s got a second distillery slated for the U.S. Here’s a snippet of my conversation with Branson about early learnings with Sylva (or as some have called it, “wood juice”), why ABV isn’t important in the long run, and what the biggest obstacles to adult non-alc growth will be. What do you think consumers are looking for from their experiences with ANA? Ultimately I think consumers want choice, to feel included, and an accurate mirror held up that validates their decision to change or moderate what they drink. Then it is about a high-quality product with a distinct brand, that stands for something and can balance a sense of familiarity and freedom with both style and substance. I would argue the majority of our category is made up of products, not brands, and there are too many companies with big ranges trying to make everything across multiple alcohol categories and in multiple formats. This tells me there is a supply chain for the category that wasn’t previously there but it doesn’t actually help the consumer when curation and choice spill into saturation and confusion. Would love to hear more from you about language when branding and marketing ANA products – how are you striking the balance between familiarity and conveying that this is something new or exciting? Ten years ago my conversations with customers or consumers were 90% education on the need and the opportunity for high quality non-alc options rather than Seedlip-led. This has now encouragingly begun to flip. We have much more understanding of the need, the category, price points, channels and the ecosystem of the space. This frees space to share your brand, your liquids, your story – which is a brilliant thing we should embrace so we can further move away from just “why?” to “why yours?” The key question, though, is how important going forwards is the product ABV claim? How much should the proof and ABV dominate the conversation versus the quality of the product, the taste, the occasion. Most consumers don’t know or maybe care about all the intricacies of ABV across beers, wines and spirits – surely they choose categories and styles based on how they feel, and the occasion. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I do know that when talking about Seedlip, or Seasn or Sylva, the fact they are non-alcoholic is just a piece of information, like the fact they’re all vegan and sugar free. How do you see the ANA category developing in five years? This year has felt different to all of the other 11 years I've been working in this space. Not just because we launched Sylva and I am back at the beginning, but because the alcohol landscape has shifted quite dramatically at a fiscal level. This is not simply because there is choice now, but if you play out the trends, there are some big structural implications. In the UK for example, nightclubs are predicted to not exist in five years time and eight pubs are closing every week here. The way we socialize has changed and with that, what we drink. Read the full interview on BevNET.com. | 
