{"id":165937,"date":"2025-12-03T11:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165937\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:35:10","slug":"af-drinks-wins-morrisons-deal-to-sell-alcohol-free-cocktails-across-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165937\/","title":{"rendered":"AF Drinks wins Morrisons deal to sell alcohol-free cocktails across UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now in its fifth year of business, King is going a step further, becoming the first New Zealand alcohol-free producer to secure UK supermarket distribution, with AF Drinks\u2019 products set to be rolled out across 350 stores across the UK.<\/p>\n

King, who is now based in Miami, Florida, said the process began with one of Morrisons\u2019 biggest competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2023 we got investment from Conviviality, which is the investment arm of Pernod Ricard. One of the other UK retailers reached out to us through them, and we were quite surprised because the UK is very mature in the no\/low alcohol industry,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was surprising is that they have tonnes of non-alcohol beers and wines and spirits, but they didn\u2019t have alcohol-free ready to drinks (RTDs). They were realising that people, particularly that slightly younger group, they are wanting convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AFAF Drinks founder Lisa King still considers the business to be small, despite landing significant overseas contracts. Photo \/ Jed Bradley<\/p>\n

The non\/low alcohol market in the UK is diverse, with data from research firm Mintel showing the category is worth \u00a3413 million ($951.5m).<\/p>\n

According to Stats NZ\u2019s latest alcohol available for consumption series, which provides data on the volume of alcoholic beverages available for consumption \u2013 beer, wine and spirits consumption has declined to the lowest level since data was first collected.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the average number of standard drinks a day per person over the age of 18 was 1.8, down 4.8% from 2023, following a 5.4% decrease in 2022.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, the average number of standard drinks a day has fallen almost 20%.<\/p>\n

King said almost half of UK adults now choose low- and no-alcohol drinks, with many still drinking alcohol too. <\/p>\n

\u201cLed by Millennials and Gen Z, this shift isn\u2019t about sobriety \u2013 it\u2019s about moderation. A new wave of mindful drinkers is redefining what it means to be social, sophisticated and in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going global<\/p>\n

AF Drinks began as a lockdown project during the Covid pandemic, slowly growing its home consumer base before it considered going overseas.<\/p>\n

But a piece of advice given to King by an ex-Coca Cola executive made King rethink an expansion to Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of Kiwi companies go to Australia thinking, oh it\u2019s just an extension of New Zealand. At the time we were struggling to name a Kiwi food or beverage company that actually had done well in Australia, so there was definitely those cautionary signs of that Australia is just not as easy as you think.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advice they gave was, if you\u2019re thinking about long term for an acquisition or some kind of exit, the global big guys see Australia and New Zealand as the same thing … what they value is if you can make it in the US or the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor in the decision not to launch in Australia was its supermarket duopoly. Australia has a similar duopoly to New Zealand with Woolworths and Coles supermarkets.<\/p>\n

According to Kind, the margins those supermarkets were asking for was almost double what they were giving away in New Zealand, making any launch a non-starter.<\/p>\n

\"AFAF Drinks sells a range of alcohol-free cocktails and sparkling beverages, using a unique “afterglow” secret ingredient. Photo \/ AF<\/p>\n

But since launching in the US, the business has only continued to grow, with King highlighting the scale of the retail industry compared to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 4000 Walmarts, 2000 Target stores, and Kroger\u2019s actually the largest traditional grocery store and there\u2019s over 2000 of those.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in 41 states across the US. You definitely have to invest a lot and it\u2019s a really tricky place to navigate, but the rewards are massive.\u201d<\/p>\n

King also shared that the business has had \u201cquite a few discussions\u201d with large alcohol companies keen to acquire them, although she couldn\u2019t share any specific names.<\/p>\n

One of those offers even progressed for six months before the plug was pulled, with King understanding they chose to focus on their own business first.<\/p>\n

King said it\u2019s always hard to take a step back to admire how far the business had come, acknowledging that as an entrepreneur she\u2019s always looking forward to the next milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a Zoom meeting across the UK, US and New Zealand with all of our partners and all of our team. It brought me back to five years ago when we were just about to launch in New Zealand, and we had five people on the Zoom call sitting in my house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s this big group of people that we\u2019re working with, it was almost 30 people on the call. I think to be in two of the biggest markets in the world in five years is definitely something I\u2019m really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in its fifth year of business, King is going a step further, becoming the first New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,108375,20784,108376,4995,2684,138,26892,28645,3468,17247,71,13313,194,9933,3331,108377,13106,225,130,34291,111,139,69,384,8780,29544,34742,13311,97,1961,210,61,19137,664,1613,6202,28367,379],"class_list":["post-165937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across","tag-af","tag-alcohol","tag-alcoholfree","tag-away","tag-beverage","tag-business","tag-cocktails","tag-competitive","tag-deal","tag-drinks","tag-from","tag-giant","tag-kiwi","tag-later","tag-launch","tag-lowalcohol","tag-maker","tag-market","tag-more","tag-morrisons","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-premium","tag-range","tag-secured","tag-sell","tag-supermarket","tag-this","tag-through","tag-to","tag-traditional","tag-turn","tag-uk","tag-wins","tag-worldwide","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}