Athletic Brewing raises $50 million as nonalcoholic wave sweeps beer making

Main nonalcoholic brewer Athletic Brewing Firm introduced Tuesday it is raised a further $50 million in fairness financing in a spherical led by Common Atlantic. 

The corporate expects Common Atlantic to “in the end make investments considerably past that,” Athletic CEO and founder Invoice Shufelt informed CNBC’s “Squawk Field” Tuesday morning. The brewer plans to make use of the most recent funding to extend manufacturing capability and increase its choices at world retailers to satisfy rising shopper demand for nonalcoholic beer.

“We’re captivated with remodeling the way in which trendy adults drink and changing critics into believers. We’re at first of a long-term pattern, and we could not be extra excited to have Common Atlantic by our facet as Athletic begins its subsequent section of progress,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch.

Athletic Brewing launched its nonalcoholic craft brewing services in 2018 and has since grown to turn out to be the tenth largest U.S. craft brewery and twentieth largest total U.S. brewing firm, regardless of solely providing nonalcoholic choices, in response to rankings by the Brewers Affiliation. 

Athletic holds over 19% market share inside nonalcoholic beer and is driving 32% of whole nonalcoholic beer class progress, in response to NielsenIQ knowledge.

“Income has greater than doubled since our Sequence D [funding round] about 18 months in the past,” Shufelt mentioned on CNBC.

The Wall Avenue Journal reported Tuesday the corporate’s valuation has additionally doubled with the most recent fundraising and now stands at $800 million.

The corporate presently has two brewing services within the U.S., one in Milford, Connecticut, and the second in San Diego. Athletic not too long ago introduced the acquisition of a 3rd U.S. brewing facility, additionally situated in San Diego. As soon as operational, Athletic expects the power to assist double its U.S. brewing capability.

“We offered effectively over 3 million instances, over a 100 million cans, did over $90 million in income final 12 months as an organization, and we’re rising effectively above that this 12 months,” Shufelt mentioned.

The corporate’s success is essentially attributed to rising well being and wellness tendencies which can be driving shopper curiosity in nonalcoholic drinks.

Greater than 40% of People say they’re actively making an attempt to drink much less alcohol in 2024, in response to latest knowledge by NCSolutions. That proportion jumps to 49% when surveying millennials and 61% for Technology Z, in response to the information.

Established beer firms like Heineken, Constellation Manufacturers-owned Corona, Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser and even Diageo’s Guinness have additionally hopped on the pattern, introducing nonalcoholic beer choices of their very own.

“We wish to give individuals beer they’ll drink seven nights every week and be ok with,” Shufelt mentioned. “We have invested over $100 million in our manufacturing which has actually differentiated high quality that this section has by no means seen earlier than.”