Colruyt launches alcohol-free Cara beer
Supermarket chain Colruyt has launched a new alcohol-free version of its beer brand Cara. Cara 0,0% joins the 32 alcohol-free beers already sold by the chain.
In 2023, the group saw its sales of zero-alcohol beers increase by 20 per cent compared with the same period the year before.
The group previously tried to launch an alcohol-free lager in the early 2000s. “At the time, it wasn’t a great success and we stopped selling it after a few years. Consumers weren’t ready for it,” a spokesperson said. “We’re now much further advanced in the development of soft drinks, and we’re concentrating more on their flavour."
Around 10 years ago, the chain's management considered getting rid of the Cara brand in order to bring the product into its Everyday range. This branding enables consumers to quickly identify the shop's cheapest products. However, several thousand people criticised the plan and called on the company to keep the name.
"We can't predict whether students will drink alcohol-free Cara, but time will tell"
Cara Pils is particularly popular with students. "We can't predict whether students will drink alcohol-free Cara, but time will tell," the spokesperson said.
While volumes of low-alcohol – less than 3.5 per cent – and non-alcohol beers have grown strongly in recent years, the market share in the Belgian brewing sector as a whole remains marginal, currently estimated at 4.8 per cent.
According to Eurostat data published last week, the European picture is similar. Last year, European countries brewed 343 million hectolitres of beer, 18 million of which contained less than 0.5 per cent alcohol.
Colruyt introduced two high-alcohol variants of Cara in spring 2022: a blond at 8.5 per cent and a fruit beer at 7.5 per cent.
© PHOTO COLRUYT
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