New York City-based AL’s non-alcoholic (NA) lager plans to scale up via a new partnership with Beacon, New York-headquartered Industrial Arts Brewing, the companies announced Monday.
Through a licensing agreement, Industrial Arts will begin all production, logistics, marketing and sales of AL’s, a craft NA brand founded by Alban de Pury and Fanny Karst.
“Fanny and I have worked very hard over the past 4+ years in turning AL’s into a beloved classic American non-alc lager,” de Pury told Brewbound. “We’ve built strong relationships with all our accounts and customers on the ground and we now have a solid foundation to build upon.
“What we were missing was a big infrastructure behind us and we’re super happy to now have that with Industrial Arts,” he continued. “This deal will allow AL’s to expand and be much more competitive in this fast growing NA market.”
AL’s followed a somewhat unconventional path to market by focusing on the on-premise channel first. The NA beer “thrives in bars, nightclubs, restaurants and anywhere music plays loud,” according to a press release.
After finding its on-premise footing, AL’s expanded to Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s, as well as independent off-premise retailers throughout its six-state footprint (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Ohio).
Industrial Arts plans to broaden AL’s reach, director of sales and marketing Andrew Nicodema told Brewbound.
“We hope to expand to Industrial Arts’ current distribution footprint, covering 16 states with plans to take it even further,” he said. “We ultimately see Al’s as a national NA brand that transcends regional trends and acts as everyone’s favorite, approachable American NA lager.”
Industrial Arts’ first order of business is to fill AL’s existing “pipeline with product and ensur[e] a stable production rhythm here at IABC before moving into new markets.”
The Hudson Valley-based craft brewery is no stranger to NA beer. Industrial Arts brews NA beer under its Safety Glasses brand family, which includes pils, IPA and white (all less than 0.5% ABV) and Citra Spritz hop water (0% ABV).
“We’ve long admired AL’s for its simplicity and laser focus,” Industrial Arts founder Jeff O’Neil said in the release. “It’s a beer with a clear point of view and its own lane within the NA category. Our team is excited to help it grow while maintaining and nurturing everything that makes it unique.”
NA is the only segment of the beer category to record double-digit growth in the most recent monthly report from market research firm Circana. Year-to-date (YTD) through May 18, NA dollar sales increased 23.9%, to $208.16 million at multioutlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C).
The segment’s share of dollars (1.31 sharepoints) and volume (1.13 sharepoints) is small, but growing (+0.28 in dollars and +0.27 in volume sharepoints YTD). NA skews heavily toward the grocery channel, where its share of dollars increased to 3.27 sharepoints YTD through May 18.
AL’s produced 930 barrels of beer in 2024, according to an estimate from the Brewers Association’s (BA) May/June issue of the New Brewer magazine. Industrial Arts’ production declined 8%, to 18,395 barrels, according to the BA.