MADRID ? Looking for ways to combat fizzling sales, European brewers are exploring non-alcohol brews and modeling themselves after Spain?s success with such beverages, the Wall Street Journal reports. Spain leads the world in nonalcoholic beer sales.
Since 2008, Heineken NV has debuted 10 nonalcoholic brewskies in the Netherlands, Italy and other countries. Carlsberg A/S launched non-alcohol beer in Finland and Norway, among other nations. In 2011, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV started offering a non-alcohol Hoegaarden beer in Belgium, in addition to debuting Jupiler Force non-alcohol beer.
With beer sales plummeting overseas, the brewers are hoping these new lines will capture the interest of women and health-conscious drinkers. Profit margins on nonalcoholic beer can be better, too, because of reduced alcohol taxes.
?It is quite a natural move when you see that the overall beer markets [in Western Europe] are going down. So, of course, we're battling for market share,? said Lene Dyrby Anderson, who works on new products for Carlsberg.
Currently, non-alcohol beer has less than 2 percent of all beer consumption in most Western markets. However, around 13 percent of all beer consumed in Spain doesn?t have alcohol. Spain?s growth took off in the 1980s when the government and brewing companies began marketing nonalcoholic beers to reduce drunk driving. Spanish restaurants and bars have non-alcohol beer on tap, and the subcategory usually takes up a third of beer segment in convenience and grocery stores.
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