| Welcome to Bw Reads, our weekend newsletter featuring one great magazine story from Bloomberg Businessweek. Dry January is more than halfway over, if you chose to keep alcohol on the shelf this month. Businessweek marked the occasion with an exploration of the business of nonalcoholic drinks. In this feature, Andrew Zaleski visits Athletic Brewing Co., which is changing the way people think about near beer. You can find the whole story online here. You can also listen to it here. If you like what you see, tell your friends! Sign up here. It began, as no beer startup ever has before, with a few too many virgin piña coladas. In December 2014, Bill Shufelt was 15 months into quitting alcohol. He'd never been a problem drinker—he often woke before 6 a.m. to hit the gym, something no one who harbors a punitive relationship with booze would do. But as a day trader at Point72 Asset Management, the hedge fund founded by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, he'd found himself drinking at least five nights a week, between business dinners and outings with work friends. "I was just thinking about what kind of husband and father and colleague I wanted to be down the line," Shufelt recalls. "And I did think alcohol was a ceiling on that." So he stopped drinking, and he didn't particularly miss it. Except when, on a Caribbean vacation with his wife that year, he was having to order off the kids' menu when he wanted something other than water or soda. One night while the two walked to dinner, he griped that he'd be pairing his entrée with yet another virgin cocktail. "Why can't someone just fix this and make a great beer?" he asked her. She stopped him in his tracks. "You should do that," she said. Today, Shufelt is best known as the co-founder of Athletic Brewing Co., a manufacturer of nonalcoholic beers (technically, very low-alcoholic) that are remarkably comparable to regular lagers, radlers, witbiers, India pale ales and more, despite the near-absence of flavor-enhancing ethanol. Since its founding seven years ago, Athletic has become the No. 1 nonalcoholic beer brand in the US, commanding one-fifth of all sales. In 2024, according to Nielsen data, the company sold at least $132 million worth of beer in stores—a figure that doesn't include bar, restaurant or online sales. Athletic has raised more than $220 million from private equity firms and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., and has attracted celebrity endorsers, including retired NFL defensive end J.J. Watt and supermodel Karlie Kloss. It's now valued at $800 million.  John Walker (left) and Shufelt. Photographer: Emma Rose Milligan "Athletic has changed people's minds about what nonalcoholic beer can taste like. It has a mouthfeel like beer. It has an aroma like beer," says Mary Guiver, who heads beer merchandising at Whole Foods Market Inc. It's the chain's most popular beer brand, surpassing even alcoholic ones. The nonalcoholic beer category has grown alongside Athletic, climbing nearly 415% from 2018 to 2024, to almost $700 million in retail sales at groceries and liquor stores. Competitors from Guinness to the local brewhouse are elbowing in. But having cracked the market open, Athletic isn't sitting idly by. It's building a third production facility to brew even more nonalcoholic beer. Shufelt and co-founder John Walker tend not to talk about their goals in financial terms. Ask Shufelt about a possible sale of the company or an initial public offering, and he'll reply simply that they're "having more fun than ever." The primary aims, in their telling, are cultural. Their hope is that Athletic can ultimately change social behavior, by making nonalcoholic beer flavorful enough to end the assumption that "getting a drink" refers to alcohol. "We have an enormous opportunity to expand the tent of adult beverages," Shufelt says. "What's included, what beverages there are and when you can consume them." Keep reading: How Athletic Sparked the Nonalcoholic Beer Boom With Brews That Don't Suck |
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