{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Athletic\u2019s Bill Shufelt is Bullish on the Future of NA Beer \u2013 and the Beer Category","description":" Athletic Brewing co-founder and CEO Bill Shufelt is \u201cthe most excited\u201d he\u2019s felt since founding the dedicated non-alcoholic (NA) beer brand.   On the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast, Shufelt shared what\u2019s driving his hyped feeling, with a foundation he and co-founder John Walker laid about a decade ago. That foundation is built on a team of 300 co-workers, bicoastal brewing facilities, a strong distribution base for its core beers, a slate of new products hitting retailers and marketing campaigns beginning to ramp up.   \u201cI\u2019m very bullish on the long-term health and growth of the category and our part in growing that,\u201d Shufelt said. \u201cIt was very hard to get non-alcoholic beer from zero to 2% of beer, but there are actual retailers in the U.S. [where] non-alcoholic beer is touching up against 20% of their beer sales.\u201d   Those retailers lend credence to Shufelt\u2019s belief that NA beer can be a much bigger part of the beer category. Shufelt explained that consumers are very early in the NA beer discovery curve, with the vast majority unaware how the product has changed in the last decade.    Even with the stage set for growth, Shufelt acknowledged that Athletic still has work to do for the company and the segment to reach some of his loftier goals.    For Athletic in particular, which holds around 22% of the NA beer segment, distribution remains its biggest opportunity.    \u201cIn independents, no matter how much our distributors smile at us and tell us we\u2019re a priority, we\u2019re in like 10% of their independents,\u201d Shufelt said. \u201cAnd I can go into stores in almost any state in the country and look at a shelf that is controlled by our distributor that has five-plus non-alcoholic beer products on it, and Athletic will have none. There\u2019s just such untapped distribution out there still.\u201d   For now, Shufelt is focused on driving Athletic and NA beer forward. But could the future include an IPO? An Athletic led by someone else? Shufelt said it\u2019s possible, but he doesn't want to be on the outside looking in on an opportunity he was one of the few people to see.   Before the interview, Justin, Jess and Zoe discuss the latest headlines, including the mixed results craft brewers are seeing from the World Cup, the American Cider Association co-locating its 2027 CiderCon conference with the Brewers Association\u2019s Craft Brewers Conference, the closure of Nebraska\u2019s largest craft brewery and the top new products of so far this year. ","author_name":"Brewbound Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/brewbound.libsyn.com\/website","html":"