Alcohol-free drives success for sparkling wine giant

A potentially game-changing finding from Henkell Freixenet’s latest financial results is the significant leap made in sales of its alcohol-free sparkling wine. According to the German company, whose full-year results for 2024 show it reached €1.25 billion in revenue (excluding excise taxes), sales of its Mionetto 0.0%, Freixenet 0.0% and Mionetto Aperitivo non-alcoholic increased by 23.6%. This towers over the growth of Henkell, for example, which is the most exported sparkling wine brand from Germany, which shot up by 8.3%.

“Even though non-alcoholic products still only account for a small share of the overall market, we see vast potential for our non-alcoholic portfolio, which is growing in popularity due to greater consumer health consciousness and GenZ’s shift in consumption habits,” said Dr Andreas Brokemper, CEO of Henkell Freixenet.

“With our non-alcoholic innovations, such as the Freixenet Cordon Negro 0.0%, the Freixenet Italian Range 0.0% and the global distribution expansion of Mionetto 0.0% we see ourselves well-positioned in this growing market.”

As db recently reported, zero alcohol wines are outpacing low ABV wines, suggesting that consumers are increasingly preferring ‘no alcohol’ rather than ‘low alcohol’. In the UK, the overall no-and-low category is expected to have more than doubled in 2024 compared to 2023, and to grow at a rate of 7% CAGR through 2028, according to the IWSR. But for wine, specifically, low-alcohol sales fell by 5% in 2024, while no-alcohol wine sales rose by 8%.

Much of this growth has been attributed to the zero sparkling category, led by frontrunners such as Henkell Freixenet.

The Drinks Business