How did The Alcohol Free Drinks Company come into existence in July 2021…..
I’m Andy and I started this company to try and expand the opportunity for people to find great Alcohol Free Drinks especially from independent producers.
Having spent much of my life as what I would have described as a “Social Drinker”, during the Pandemic I started to drink far too much and I made some bad choices in how I dealt with being in business and how I dealt with being a husband and father. At the time I was part of the “family” business that was shut for most of the lockdown which came under intense pressure from all directions, however, my coping mechanism involved bottles of wine and just becoming angry with life in general.
So, for lots of reasons and after a false start in “Dry January” I stopped drinking in March 2021. I can tell you giving up Alcohol when you’ve drunk since being (cough) 18 is not easy and one of the things that got me over the really tough times was using an app on my phone called I Am Sober you can learn about it here if you need help, the community on the app are just great and you learn to take one day at a time, which is not a bad way to live life in general I find.
Once I had stopped drinking Alcohol following lockdown where I drank far too much, I found it difficult to get hold of a drink that tasted of Beer and made me feel that I wasn’t standing out and being sober shamed. On a trip to a curry house post lockdown I was offered Orange Juice, Sparkling Water or a coke……. none of which go with a curry!
I set about getting distribution agreements with a number of craft and artisan breweries who had good ethics and cared about the product they created and the ethics around how they operate. So most of the products we sell have got great companies behind them and wherever we can we give you the story behind the company who produce the drink on the product page.
I did a number of markets, bottle shops to understand as much as I could to understand customers views and requirements for Alcohol Free Drinks which has very much helped in the growth of the company. In 2022 I started to focus on trade sales as I feel very passionately that people should have choice when they go out to eat or socilise in a pub. Now as you can see we are proud to bring our extensive range of independently produced AF drinks to Shopify.