Founded in 2018, Lucky Saint has ridden the rise of non-alcoholic beer from niche into mainstream. The company has recorded sales revenue growth of 180% year on year since launching.
Lucky Saint鈥檚 strategy is to create a 鈥榝ive-star alcohol-free beer鈥 on taste, boost availability and make alcohol-free products more socially acceptable and aspirational through marketing. Since launching, Lucky Saint has claimed the title of the UK鈥檚 number one dedicated alcohol-free beer brand, was voted The Marketing Society’s 2023 Brand of the Year and acknowledged in The Grocer Gold Awards 2023 as drinks brand of the year.
As the first alcohol-free brewer to be welcomed into the British Beer & Pub Association in its 119-year history, the company has a comprehensive strategy to increase sales in both the on- and off-trades. In 2023 the brand created its own pub, The Lucky Saint, in Marylebone, followed by a pop-up pub in Waitrose鈥檚 King鈥檚 Cross store during Dry January. Lucky Saint became the first official brand partner of the Dry January campaign this year, organised by the charity Alcohol Change UK, with an estimated 10million people participating in the UK.
The key message behind The Lucky Saint pub, according to Director of Marketing and eCommerce Kerttu Inkeroinen, is 鈥渁ll about choice. It鈥檚 why The Lucky Saint is fully licensed. We want a group of friends to be able to have a night out and if some want to drink, that鈥檚 OK. If someone doesn鈥檛 want to drink, that鈥檚 also OK. But the point is that the ones who don鈥檛 drink still get to have a great taste. They鈥檙e not compromising on anything.鈥
The brand has continued to innovate and launched a Hazy IPA to its line-up late in 2023, produced in the UK.
Brands do lots of things, but one thing all great brands should do is work hard to be culturally relevant. This is another example – plant-based food and dairy alternatives being others 鈥 where the cultural and behavioural change was already happening, but it needed a challenger brand to accelerate the segment or category from niche to mainstream. Alcohol-free would have happened without Lucky Saint, there were, are, other brands, but they just did it with a bit more chutzpah! They read the runes and produced a brand concept that rode the waves of this journey to drive category penetration faster and deeper. This is always delivered though a heady cocktail (alcohol free no doubt) of insight; foresight; vision; innovation; an obsession with product quality; great brand building; a distinctive identity; strong marketing; communications; effective go to market activities; working the details; investment; sweat; tears and some luck. But… the one element that propels a brand to the top of any segment and makes winning possible is THE BRAND. Without brands like Lucky Saint鈥檚 this happens slowly or remains a niche. If we left it to retailers… it would never quite happen.
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