• 🇬🇧 U.K. Ad Watchdog Bans Huel Ad
• 🥂 Moët Takes A Sip Of NA Wine
• 🦵 Compass Box Kicks Off New Era
• 👀 Walmart Sees Affluent Shopper Boost
• 📖 Jeff Church’s Tale Of Two Brands. Why Suja Soared And Rowdy Energy Crashed.

What is it like hustling adult non-alc (ANA) products outside of major hubs? Casey Dolan of Charlotte Beverage Distribution will tell you that it ain’t easy, but she’s learned some major lessons. 

The entrepreneur, based in Charlotte, N.C., founded the ANA distribution company in January after attempting to open up her own adult zero-proof dessert cafe. Finding a lack of product available in her market, she decided to become the source, slowly curating a selection. After Boisson paused operations in April, her portfolio grew to nearly 20 offerings as brands scrambled to supply their accounts in the area. 

But that doesn’t mean the region has caught on like mindful drinking has elsewhere. Currently, five states account for 37% of non-alc dollars: California, Texas, Florida, Colorado, and Massachusetts. As a control state, ANA products aren’t sold by the North Carolina state system like bev-alc, which left the category in a bit of a limbo. Still, direct spirit replacements like Seedlip and Ritual have made inroads, and while those products have been pioneers they’ve also created a perception challenge among buyers. 

“They’re products that you have to do a good amount of work with to make a drink,” said Dolan. 

She’s trying to strike a tricky balance: giving bartenders something that makes their ANA mixology life easy, while making sure they keep the zero-proof menu in the craft cocktail realm. Non-alc cocktails are the most popular alternative option on-premise, according to recent data from NIQ. But beverage managers want to stay under the alcoholic cocktail price, so Dolan aims to offer less expensive spirit replacements or encourage the addition of a liqueur or elixir that amps up the sophistication of a non-alc cocktail. 

“If you go under $11 you're sending a signal that this is just a juice and bubble blend, and it's not craft,” she said. Also, in the land of “race car wives,” anything high in sugar is a no-go, she said. 

Adapting to those parameters, Dolan is already making her way into major hotels and booking meetings with stadiums. The lack of data on ANA performance in sports arenas is a barrier, but she’s confident the region is going to catch up soon to the fast-growing trends seen across the industry (NIQ projects the sector will grow to $1 billion off-premise in the next two years). If everything goes right, next year she’ll be operating a fleet of branded trucks to distribute goods from new centers in Raleigh and Wilmington.

“It's been an uphill battle and it's gonna be like that probably for a while, but I feel like at some point in the next six months, at least here in Charlotte, it's just gonna sharp-incline up,” she said.

Catch Up On The Latest ANA News: Diageo Adds Ritual Zero Proof to Expanding Non-Alc Portfolio.

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U.K. advertising regulators have banned yet another Huel ad for “misleading” claims – the second time in two months – alleging the meal replacement brand wrongfully drew comparisons between its Daily Greens products and green vegetables in an Instagram ad.

🥬 The ad featured Huel founder Julian Hearn claiming that the brand’s Daily Greens products were “substantially cheaper” and “equally good” compared to traditional veggies.

🥗 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) took issue with both of those claims, suggesting that has “not seen evidence that the Daily Greens product was cheaper than a portion of greens” and that the statements were “misleading and could not be substantiated.”

🐲 The ASA banned another Huel ad last month for failing to disclose a business relationship with Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett, who appeared in the ad. Before that, the ASA ordered another Huel ad be pulled in February 2023 in which it made similar claims about pricing as the Daily Greens ads, suggesting consumers could save on their food bills with cheaper meal replacement shakes.

🇺🇲 Huel is based in the U.K. and also sells online and in retail in the U.S., and thus far its ads have not appeared to be formally challenged stateside.

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The French might not observe Sober October but Moët Hennessy will be popping bottles of non-alcoholic wine today as it announces a minority investment in premium sparkling alcohol-removed wine French Bloom. 

🍷 Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of luxury brands company LVMH, has taken about a 30% stake in French Bloom, marking its first investment in the NA space.

📈 Over its first three years in operation, French Bloom has become one of the fastest-growing NA wine brands in the world.

💲 Founded by French model Constance Jablonski and former Michelin Guide director Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger alongside her winemaker husband, Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger, French Bloom sells three varieties available in the U.S. including a $119 bottle of Vintage 2022 Cuvée.

With whiskey sales in decline, brands are making bold moves. For one of the most innovative companies in the category, that means making the biggest change since its founding, in 2000.

🪢 Launched by John Glaser – an industry operator and disrupter known for getting in trouble with the Scotch Whisky Association – Compass Box is now tightening its core lineup, reducing its prices and dialing up its brand.

👋 The change follows Glaser’s departure, as well as feedback from retailers and distributors that the company’s core lineup of seven expressions was too hectic to get on the shelf. So Compass Box is now promoting a lower priced selection of four flagship bottles.

📉 Other whiskey brands have been using a similar strategy, especially as the category remains crowded and sales off-premise are down 2.4% in the last 52 weeks, ending September 7, compared to the period last year, according to NIQ. 

Read the full story on BevNET.

Although lower income households remain Walmart’s core online grocery customer, a growing base of affluent households fueled the retail chain’s growth in the first half of 2024, according to the latest edition of Profiling the Online Shopper: eGrocery Purchase Patterns in the U.S. from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus.  

💵 In the first half of 2024, households making less than $50,000 annually accounted for 41% of Walmart’s average monthly active users (aMAUs) compared to 36% for hard discount stores, 30% for supermarkets and 28% for Target, per the report. 

📈 However, Walmart’s most affluent segment (households with $200k+ in annual income) expanded to 8%, growing faster than the retailer’s overall MAU base. On average, affluent households that shop online for groceries at Walmart spend 1.5x more each month than households in the lowest income bracket. 

💭 “Walmart’s growth in households making $200,000+ per year shows that the ‘flight to value’ has even affected how this income group shops for groceries,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in the report. 

Serial entrepreneur Jeff Church talks about how he navigated Suja’s early development and rapid growth and what he believes was the most impactful decision in determining the brand’s success. He also discussed the failure of Rowdy Energy, which launched in 2020 and shut down less than four years later.

Listen to the episode now.