Keurig Dr Pepper has invested $50 million in Athletic Brewing Company, the nonalcoholic beer maker, as part of a $75 million fund-raising round by Athletic, the companies announced on Monday.
The investment by Keurig, which also owns the brands Canada Dry, Snapple and Green Mountain, is the beverage giant’s second foray into the nonalcoholic beverage category, following a deal to acquire a nonalcoholic cocktail brand called Atypique this summer. Keurig has said it wants to make more acquisitions and has about $20 billion to do so.
The deal is sign of continued interest in the fast-growing category of nonalcoholic beer, as younger consumers drink less and care more about their waistlines. Sales of nonalcoholic beer are skyrocketing in the United States, growing almost 70 percent from 2016 to 2021, to about $670 million in annual sales, according to Euromonitor.
That is still a tiny portion of the overall beer market, but the popularity of nonalcoholic beer stands in stark contrast to…
This article was written by Lauren Hirsch and originally published on www.nytimes.com