The benefits of Brexit are not easy to spot, but we have one winner: low-alcohol beer. Sales of the drinks increased more here than in any other market in 2023, reports the FT, thanks to a post-Brexit overhaul of alcohol duties.
Brewers of beers with less than 3.5% alcohol took advantage of lower rates, launching new and revamped products. UK sales almost doubled from 650,000 hectolitres in 2022 to almost 1.3 million hectolitres last year, according to data provider IWSR.
The UK is now the eighth-largest market for sales of low strength beer in the world (up from thirteenth).
Research earlier this summer by IWSR forecast “considerable growth” over the next few years for low alcohol drinks, “particularly driven by low-alcohol beer”.
Many of the beer behemoths have introduced no or low alcohol variants for their global brands.
The British Beer and Pub Association told the paper that brewers had “enthusiastically responded” to changing consumer tastes. “Duty freezes and cuts and certainty around these gives brewers the confidence and ability to innovate and invest in low-strength and alcohol-free products,” it added.
Luke Boase, Lucky Saint’s founder, also noted the “rise of ‘zebra striping’, this practice of people alternating between alcoholic and alcohol-free drinks within a single visit to the pub”.
In other Brexit news this week, The Grocer reported Food & Drink Federation analysis showing that British food and drink exports fell 6.1% to £11.2bn in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
The decline in overall exports was largely driven by a fall in alcohol consumption, it seems. “The UK’s food and drink businesses make brands and products that consumers love, not just at home but across the world,” said Balwinder Dhoot, FDF’s director of industrial growth and sustainability. “However, these figures show manufacturers are facing increasing bureaucratic barriers when exporting, particularly to the EU.”
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