- “Bartender, I’ll have a G&T. Hold the gin,” by Thomas Buckley (Dec. 11th, 2017)
- “The no-buzz beer boom,” by Thomas Buckley (Apr. 22nd, 2019)
- “Craft beer for nondrinkers, by Tony Rehagen (Aug. 19th, 2019)
1. According to the articles, non-alcoholic (NA) beverages are a growing sector of the beverage industry, with new firms emerging to compete with established firms to offer products like NA beer and NA gin. Anheuser-Busch, for example, forecasts that in a few years 20% of their sales volume will come from NA products!
Demand is increasing for non-alcoholic beverages, but the question is why. The articles don’t focus on this issue, but they suggest different perceptions of non-alcoholic beverages or of healthy living in general driving this revolution. For question 1, please identify two perceptions of non-alcoholic beverages or of healthy living in general that might explain why demand for non-alcoholic beverages is increasing. Be sure to (a) describe the perception, and (b) speculate how it might be increasing demand for non-alcoholic beverages.
23 THE BOTTOM LINE Air France’s operating profit rose 44 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from a year earlier. It’s using its improved finances to start a discount line to lower long-term costs. Adidas AG’s popular Stan Smiths. Passengers will be able to stream movies and shows on their own devices, a strategy to appeal to the always-connected crowd while saving the airline the expense of fancy seatback screens. All seats will feature USB ports for charging and, starting next year, free Wi-Fi. Other perks will come at a price, among them checked luggage, programs from the Viceland and Red Bull TV channels viewed via virtual-reality headsets, and the baobab juice. Franck Terner, CEO of the Air France mainline unit, describes Joon as a laboratory for experiments in marketing and pricing, comparing its launch to that of Richard Branson’s mold-breaking Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. in the 1980s. Yet an ad campaign that likens Joon to a trendy rooftop bar and fashion designer—before adding that it’s “also an airline”— has drawn criticism that it’s patronizing to younger travelers and misinterprets their needs. “What we care about are the same things that old people care about: cheap, reliable flights that have got no hidden costs,” humorist Paul Taylor said on What’s Up France?, his Canal Plus TV show. “Maybe instead of trying to create a new condescending airline, try to fix the ones you already got.” �Ania Nussbaum steeply than fares. At stake is Air France’s ability to defend European routes against further incursions from no-frills specialists led by Ryanair Holdings Plc, while also combating an emerging discount chal- lenge from the likes of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA in lucrative long-haul markets. Air France, Europe’s largest airline, has been flying high amid a business resurgence this year, as the number of visitors to France recovered after a spate of terrorist attacks. Operating profit jumped 44 percent in the first nine months from the year- earlier period, and the share price doubled. But ana- lysts say the airline must use the business rebound as an opportunity to better manage its high costs. “Air France needs to improve its cost perfor- mance relative to competitors in order to thrive in an environment that may not be as benign as the one we have today,” says Andrew Lobbenberg, an aviation analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc in London. “That’s what Joon is about.” The unit—the company’s fourth brand alongside the mainline Air France, short-to-medium-haul, low-cost unit Transavia, and regional arm Hop!—is based at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It will ini- tially serve Barcelona, Berlin, Lisbon, and Porto, Portugal, before next year adding more far-flung destinations including the Seychelles and Fortaleza in Brazil. Routes will also include Cairo, Cape Town, Istanbul, Oslo, and Rome. It’s applied for flights to the U.S., too. Current union agreements would limit the fleet to 28 aircraft. Joon was born out of a compromise by Jean-Marc Janaillac, chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, who chose to develop it while backing away from the more overtly cut-price Transavia. Union opposition to that unit’s much lower wages contributed to the departure of former CEO Alexandre de Juniac in 2016. Transavia’s business plan called for significant con- cessions from pilots, but Joon will pay them as much as Air France does. The new carrier instead will get savings of 40 percent on the cost of its cabin crews, vs. those at Air France’s mainline brand, by using fewer, lower-paid attendants who’ll also help tidy the planes between flights, speeding turnarounds. That will reduce overall expenses by as much as 18 percent. Ticket prices won’t be the lowest, with a one-way trip to Lisbon on Jan. 8 priced from €50 ($59), according to Joon’s website. That’s cheaper than previously charged by Air France, which will vacate routes that Joon takes up, but still €8.74 more than the same journey with EasyJet Plc, Europe’s second- biggest discount carrier and a major force in the French market. It’s also €11 higher than a flight by Transavia, which will con- tinue servicing some of the same routes. Hence the focus on cool, as Joon seeks to woo travelers who are somewhat price-sensitive but who also—it hopes—put a high value on technology and lifestyle perks. The cabin crew will wear electric-blue polo shirts and white sneakers that resemble As hipsters rediscover classic cocktails like the Sidecar, their teetotaling friends are stuck with cola, water, or such treacly confections as the Shirley Temple. After one too many mocktails at pubs, Ben Branson decided to create a nonalcoholic alternative to booze that didn’t taste like it was made for children. Turning to The Art of Distillation, a spirits-making guide first published in 1651, the former branding consultant began experimenting in his kitchen in a cottage near London. The result: Seedlip, a ginlike drink that aims to deliver the depth of flavor and mouthfeel of a high-end spirit—but with no alcohol. Introduced two years ago, Seedlip is riding the wave of interest in more healthful artisanal food and drink that’s boosting sales of everything from quinoa to craft beer to premium tonic. Branson’s brand, which comes with the pretensions of the ● Diageo is backing a startup that makes faux spirits for $55 a bottle Bartender, I’ll Have A G&T. Hold the Gin ● Joon’s Paris-to-Rome fare for March 2018 beats Air France’s but not those of leading discounters €108 Air France €96 Joon €76 EasyJet ◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek December 11, 2017 24 P H O T O G R A P H B Y C A R O L IN E T O M P K IN S F O R B LO O M B E R G B U S IN E S S W E E K . I L LU S T R A T IO N B Y O S C A R B O LT O N G R E E N THE BOTTOM LINE Tapping into the trend of artisanal, small- batch spirits, Seedlip is in the vanguard of a growing cadre of companies offering ersatz booze. trendiest small-batch spirits—and the premium price, $55 in the U.S.—is stocked in more than 100 Michelin-starred restaurants. It sells online for more than four times the price of Ginsin, which markets itself as a nonalcoholic gin made with botanicals including hibiscus and lavender. Last year, Spirits giant Diageo Plc took a minority stake in Seedlip. “We know we should be exercising, we know we should probably be drinking less midweek,” says Branson, who gave up alcohol about seven years ago. “I wanted to do something about it and solve this dilemma of ‘What do you drink when you’re not drinking?’ ” Nonalcoholic beers—containing less than 0.5 percent alcohol—such as O’Doul’s in the U.S. and Germany’s Clausthaler have been around for years. But recent entrants like Nirvana Brewery in London are trying to infuse the category with some craft cool, with such brews as Kosmic Stout and Karma Pale Ale. And Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S says European sales of low-alcohol beers such as its 0.5 percent-alcohol Nordic Pilsner rose 13 percent in the first half of 2017 vs. the year- earlier period. Dutch rival Heineken NV is banking on the nonalcoholic Heineken 0.0 it’s intro- duced in 14 countries since last summer. “You know, 25 years ago everyone was drinking alcohol at lunch, and that’s quasi-disappeared today,” Jean-François van Boxmeer, Heineken’s chief executive officer, told investors at a conference in November. “Why not drink a 0.0 beer instead of water?” If the day of peak alcohol has gone, Seedlip is among the early winners of the morning after. Industry tracker IWSR estimates that global alcohol consumption fell 1.3 percent last year amid growing concern about the effects of excessive drinking. While low- or nonalcohol faux spirits, wine, and beer remain a tiny niche, sales grew almost 5 percent in 2016, researcher Euromonitor International says. At Selfridges, the tony London department store that was the first to stock the drink Branson was bottling by hand in 2015, the initial batch of 1,000 bottles sold out in the store in three weeks, the second in three days, and the third in three minutes online. It takes six weeks to make Seedlip, named after the baskets that farmers in Branson’s home region of Lincolnshire used to sow their grain fields a century ago. The company makes two versions—Garden 108, with hints of spearmint, and Spice 94, redolent of cardamom. The botanicals, from citrus peel to bark, are macerated before being distilled in copper pots much like any liquor. That concoction is boiled down to burn off the small amounts of alcohol used in the process, leaving a concentrated distillate with no potential for getting you drunk. It’s blended and mixed with water to create an aromatic liquid akin to gin, which goes down smoothly but still manages to taste and feel something like a stiff drink. Seedlip will release a second alcohol-free drink next spring. To build interest in the brand, Branson has lined up support from the likes of Joe Hodrien, supervisor at the American Bar at London’s Savoy Hotel, which topped the World’s 50 Best Bars list earlier this year. Nonalcoholic drinks have “always had a stigma, espe- cially with groups of guys,” Hodrien says. “Seedlip’s seen as more serious.” In March the bar revamped its menu with five Seedlip-based cocktails made with ingredients such as kefir, coffee cordial, and goose- berry jam. About 1 in 5 tables orders a drink made with the stuff, he says. In the U.S., New York’s Dean & DeLuca grocery and Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog bar and San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn restau- rant stock the brand. Berry Bros. & Rudd, London’s most august wine merchant, says Seedlip has seen