The Labatt Brewing Company is targeting fast food chains and unlicensed food trucks with a new non-alcoholic beer dubbed “Budweiser Prohibition Brew.”
The new buzz-free Budweiser targets health-conscious drinkers who want to avoid alcohol. It also opens up new distribution channels for Labatt in Canada’s increasingly crowded beer market.
While Canadian thirst for low and non-alcoholic beverages has grown in recent years, selling “near-beer” in family friendly-fast food eateries threatens to spark some outrage.
“The next time you go buy a slice from Pizza Nova - one of the biggest pizza chains in Ontario - you’re going to see an opportunity to buy a non-alcoholic Budweiser. Nobody has done that kind of stuff before,” said Kyle Norrington, Labatt Canada’s vice-president of marketing. “We spent the time and effort to make sure we crafted the product so that beer lovers can enjoy it anytime any place.”
Norrington says Prohibition Brew is an adult beverage marketed to adults. However, since it has no alcohol, sales to minors are legally allowed.
“If it shows up at McDonalds people will be talking about how it’s a Trojan horse to get kids to drink beer. I can’t imagine a lot of restaurants that cater to families are going to take that risk,” said marketing expert Tony Chapman.
A customer service representative for Pizza Nova confirmed to CTVNews.ca that anyone, regardless of age, can purchase it, but noted that it “feels weird to me.”
Labatt already sells several non-alcoholic beers in Canada, but Budweiser Prohibition Brew is the company’s most ambitious effort to date. Labatt reportedly poured $6-million into its London, Ont. brewery to support the new brand. Canada is the first market to sell Prohibition Brew ahead of a wider release.
Norrington said he sees a major opportunity in improving the quality and taste of non-alcoholic beer, which has been traditionally been relegated to a dusty bottom shelf in the beverage aisles of grocery stores.
“There is some stigma around the taste of non-alcoholic products. Someone needed to take the time and effort to make one that tastes delicious. That’s the future, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he said.
Parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev wants non-and low-alcohol products to make up 20 per cent of its global sales volume by 2025. Those products currently account for nine per cent of brewing giant’s global sales.
Labatt paraded the famous Budweiser Clydesdales in front of Toronto’s Union Station Wednesday to launch the new beer. Norrington said a glitzy roll-out was needed to get the attention of beer-loving Canadians who never considered a non-alcoholic brew.
“It’s not on people’s radar. Nobody is sitting there thinking, ‘Hmm. I think I feel like a non-alcoholic beer today.’ That’s partly because nobody has really spent the time and effort to build awareness of the category,” he said.
Chapman applauds Labatt’s move to lure fitness-focused millennial drinkers and attempt to revitalize a long-forgotten segment of the saturated beer market, but says Labatt would have been better served by tapping into the popularity of craft beer and ditching the Budweiser moniker.
“I would have just gone with simply ‘Prohibition,’ the first craft beer crafted without alcohol. As soon as you attach Budweiser to it millennials immediately see it as a mass brand,” he said. “Bud is my Dads beer.”
