'We Were Just Constantly Getting Made Fun Of' — How Athletic Brewing Crushed an 'Enormous Stigma' to Craft an $800 Million Business

Bill Shufelt ne'er thought he'd commencement a business — overmuch little a brew company.

"I didn't person an entrepreneurial bony successful my body," he says. "And I had ne'er brewed a batch of brew successful my life."

Over a decade ago, Shufelt decided to springiness up alcohol. Almost instantly, he gained a caller consciousness of wellbeing. But his hunt for an enjoyable non-alcoholic brew came up empty.

"I'd beryllium opinionated successful a barroom astatine a edifice thinking, 'If this bartender could move a awesome non-alcoholic beer, I would gladly salary afloat value for that.'"

A financial trader astatine the time, Shufelt decided to behaviour thousands of user surveys, and realized he wasn't alone.

"Fifty-five percent of adults [in the surveys] were saying they would emotion a awesome non-alcoholic beer, if only it tasted amended and was little stigmatized," says Shufelt. "But the [non-alcoholic] support had fundamentally nary assortment and nary innovation. The class was marketed the aforesaid measurement arsenic it had been since Prohibition. And it had this tremendous stigma that if you're drinking an N. A. beer, you person a problem pinch alcohol. I thought, 'Maybe we person to wholly reinvent really non-alcoholic brew is made and thought of here.' This was each conscionable for illustration going connected successful my head. I yet said it retired large to my wife, and she's like, "You should do that."

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In 2017, Shufelt teamed up pinch acclaimed brewer John Walker pinch a ngo to make non-alcoholic beers "without compromise."

"I recovered personification who saw the idea," he says. "We started homebrewing pinch Gatorade jugs successful an quiet warehouse. John is truthful talented that we really did get to a constituent past wherever we had awesome non-alcoholic beer."

A twelvemonth later, they launched Athletic Brewing. Today, Athletic's offerings are the apical class choice, outpacing some Heineken and Budweiser's alcohol-free options successful U.S. market stores. The institution earned complete $100 cardinal successful gross successful 2023, and successful July, was reportedly weighted astatine $800 million. All of this earned Shufelt a finalist spot connected our Entrepreneur of 2024 database of 20 innovative leaders.

These days, Athletic is everywhere. But surely it was difficult to get started. What were immoderate of your early challenges?

I discontinue this awesome finance occupation and went retired connected my ain pinch this idea, and location was nary liking astatine each from the industry. From uncovering a statement brewer, to a brewer to squad up with, to fundraising, it was stone bottommost crossed the board.

But past I met our unthinkable co-founder, John. He had racked up each these brewing awards astatine a brewpub successful New Mexico he was moving at. Where each different brewer I talked to said "No thanks" very quickly, John thought astir the conception for a fewer days and came back. He was like, "I deliberation this is brilliant." He moved his family crossed the state to squad up.

I started going astir past to retailers. Surprise, surprise, nary 1 wanted non-alcoholic beer. The inclination was astatine zero, truthful they conscionable drew the statement to zero forever. I had to spell pinch bottles that John and I hand-bottled successful his parents' garage. Everything was uphill. We were pitching the slightest celebrated conception ever and conscionable perpetually getting made nosy of.

That's a batch of pushback. What made you push through?

I had committed to it. I had discontinue my occupation and I was successful the heavy end. I was like, I was like, "I'm going to make this work." And contempt each the no's, I thought, "This personification has nary thought — they don't person the data." Eventually I signed up 300 retailers to return to our supplier to launch. So it was each highly grassroots retired of the gross — really fun, hard-fought battles.

Fast-forward a year, aft a batch of group had tried the brew and we'd sat on-shelf for a small while, and we had outgrown our facility. All of a sudden, everyone was screaming astatine america that we didn't put enough successful the brewery. That's erstwhile we knew we were connected to thing really exciting. As achy arsenic being wholly retired of banal was.

These days, really do you support up pinch increasing demand?

We put retired successful beforehand of it. We conscionable completed an description connected the East Coast. Our East Coast Brewery is now a 100 times arsenic large arsenic our original Stratford, Connecticut Brewery. And we conscionable bought a West Coast Brewery that's almost double the size of the East Coast Brewery. So our capacity astatine the extremity of 2024 will beryllium astir 250 times arsenic overmuch arsenic 2018. We've gone from 1 of the nation's smallest of the 10,000 breweries to a apical 10 trade brewer complete that time. We vanished 2018 pinch six teammates, 2019 pinch 26 teammates, 2020 during the pandemic also. We bought our first West Coast Brewery successful March 2020, and we hired 100 teammates. And done the pandemic, we really doubled down connected culture.

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How were you capable to specify specified a clear civilization and business objectives?

We had the use of a really agelong readying cycle. Even earlier I discontinue my aged job, I had 2 years of business planning. And past aft I teamed up pinch John, we had 9 months wherever we were conscionable successful an quiet storage homebrewing, talking astir what's important to us, what we liked astir our past careers, and what we wanted Athletic life to beryllium like.

Work is forty percent of our waking hours, and very often an moreover bigger percent of our intelligence energy. So you person the prime to either make activity awesome and afloat of awesome people, a awesome civilization and a bully mission, aliases a sadistic 9 to 5 slog.

We're really intentional astir our civilization and our effect and our ngo astatine Athletic. John and I worked up an worker handbook successful 2017 [the twelvemonth Athletic was founded] that we still have, and has hardly changed. I propulsion it retired and talk to each caller teammate astatine Athletic astir it. We want to beryllium a subordinate successful the communities we do business successful — and not a profit extractor. Every teammate is simply a shareholder from time 1 successful the company. That grows pinch each day pinch the company. So there's an ownership mindset. And past everything we do is retired for positively impacting our customers, their communities and the situation arsenic well. We're a Certified B Corp, and our Two for the Trails assistance is now upwards of $6.5 cardinal dollars since we started supporting trails and parks organizations each complete the country. We're trying to person existent impact — not compromising pinch the product, not compromising pinch the environment.

Where does the sanction "Athletic" travel from?

My extremity is conscionable to beryllium a small much active, and a small healthier. So the sanction "Athletic" is really conscionable trying to beryllium affirmative and aspirational. I besides wanted thing that was easy to bid successful a crowded aliases large barroom aliases restaurant. Previously, ordering a non-alcoholic brew was truthful hard, and felt for illustration specified a infinitesimal erstwhile you were like, "What non-alcoholic brew do you have?", and everyone astatine the array would move and look astatine you. I conscionable wanted it to beryllium thing that group could inquire for pinch pride. And we were observant pinch our sanction not to necktie thing to a definite geography. We wanted a conception and marque that could recreation crossed borders.

How do you scheme to proceed to hit retired different entrants to the N.A. market?

We are investing and investing and investing successful the value of our products. We do it successful a wholly different measurement than astir of the category. Most companies effort to put and spell arsenic asset-light arsenic imaginable — find personification other to make the merchandise and outsource arsenic overmuch arsenic you can. Instead, we insource and put successful everything. We want to beryllium vertical and do everything ourselves. We're 1 of the only companies that has built breweries for non-alcoholic brew and continues to build retired up of it. And we person complete 175 teammates successful our brewing lab. Quality and different accumulation rules.

Today you're beating retired Budweiser and Heineken's N.A. beers. Do you still spot Athletic arsenic a disruptor?

For sure. It's still the sentiment of astir group successful the manufacture that non-alcoholic brew is hitting its ceiling. They spot wherever it is and they're like, "That's an astonishing maturation and it's astir apt going to beryllium 2 to 3 percent everlastingly now." Whereas successful my head, I'm like, "People are not drinking intoxicant 99 percent of the clip they're awake. So complete a agelong capable clip horizon, it's very apt non-alcoholic big beverages will beryllium bigger than alcoholic big beverages." Which I deliberation is simply a very out-of-consensus opinion, but makes full logical consciousness to me.

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