This was the collective comment from a panel of experts at the recent KAM Low + No 2026 – Drinking Differently event (25 June), which was held at Amazing Grace in Canary Wharf, London, where around 200 delegates gathered to talk about all types of low & no alcohol drinks.
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The change in people visiting the on-trade to enjoy drinks that have no or a low amount of alcohol in them has advanced hugely in the past five years or so and health, the way people socialise and alcohol’s role in people’s lives are the leading factors.
Club Soda co-founder Laura Willoughby said the change first began when food was brought into pubs on a large scale, even as far back as the late ’90s yet added health is a driving force.
“People are prioritising health highly and since the lockdowns and the fact that our other dietary preferences are changing, people are now more accepting that you need to make a decision that’s right for you when you go out and therefore there’s less peer pressure to drink.
“For those of us from the ‘ladette’ generation that absolutely went in for that peer pressure, now no one would have that same reaction if you decided that you were not drinking today.”
Socially acceptable
“People increasingly don’t want alcohol to play the same role in their lives that it has done previously,” said Drinkaware head of research Emma Catterall.
She added people have more reasons to drink differently now and there are more socially acceptable ways of doing so with health and wellbeing being key to that.
Whether it’s a lack of sleep, energy, productivity and how they feel the day after drinking, people are more aware of the effects Catterall added – not to mention greater costs to deal with.
She said: “Rather than just one big factor, it’s that combination of multiple things coming together at the right time.”
This is also where wearables such as Smartwatches come to the fore.
Professor David Nutt, co-founder of GABA Labs, explained: “People increasingly trust the data from their devices as much as, or more than, how they physically feel after drinking.
Huge influence
“That, in a way, is a good thing and the Smartphone has also had a huge influence due to the ability of someone being able to take a photo or video of you doing something stupid and have that sent to millions of people and have a permanent record of your stupidity is actually quite terrifying.”
Host of the panel, KAM marketing director Katie Jenkins asked whether such flexible attitudes to drinking will be a long-term shift and the answers were comprehensive.
Nutt said there are individuals who still don’t understand how harmful alcohol can be while Catterall added: “You’ll always get high-alcohol strength trends that come and we shouldn’t pretend risky drinking has disappeared.
“However, the next generation is growing up with a far greater choice and are less automatic to try alcohol as more credible alternatives continue to grow and this trend will continue.”
Willoughby concluded that it is still “very early days” for alcohol free but the trend that’s emerging is that people like “really nice, tasty drinks”.
“When they go out, they want to have a quality of experience and if we focus on that and not on the absence of alcohol, that is where the sweet spot is.”
