Less alcohol, more room for non-alcoholic drinks: what the European numbers suggest

If you look at the shopping basket, the picture across Europe’s six largest grocery markets is fairly clear: spending on alcoholic drinks is easing, while non-alcoholic beverages continue to gain ground. That is the reading from Circana data for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, and it points to more than a simple shift in preference. It suggests a different balance within beverage retail.

The point is not only that beer, wine and spirits have lost both value and volume. What matters just as much is that non-alcoholic alternatives have kept growing faster than the overall beverage market. In other words, this is not just a substitution story. Alongside lower alcohol consumption, there appears to be room for a broader and more varied kind of demand.

A market that is shifting, not simply shrinking

Within that landscape, Circana also highlights a generational change. About half of shoppers aged 25 to 39 say they are cutting back on alcohol, for example by buying less or stopping altogether. It is an important signal, but it should be read for what it is: a retail pattern and a reported change in purchasing behaviour, not a definitive forecast of where drinking habits will end up.

For the sector, the result is a more layered market. Non-alcoholic drinks are not growing only because they are taking over spend that once went to alcohol; they are also growing because they fit different moments, needs and rituals of their own. From bottled water to juices, smoothies, tea and coffee, the category has moved well beyond the idea of a simple substitute.

Low- and no-alcohol drinks are part of that same picture, and they are growing faster than the beverage market as a whole. That makes the segment look less like a side category and more like a visible part of the offer, one that speaks to consumers who want less alcohol without giving up the social gesture of having a drink.

Non-alcoholic beverage sales reached €109 billion, within a total beverage market of €180 billion. That scale helps show what is really at stake: this is no longer just a supporting category to alcoholic drinks, but an area with its own economic weight and continuing momentum.

More than a trend, a reset in drinking occasions

Sports drinks, energy drinks and yoghurt-based beverages are also gaining ground, which points to a consumer who increasingly wants function as well as flavour. Even here, though, it is worth avoiding overly neat conclusions: higher spending can reflect genuine demand growth, but it can also be lifted by price increases, depending on the market and the category.

So the European picture is best read as a set of parallel dynamics rather than a single, uniform bloc. Buying behaviour still differs significantly from country to country. Rather than talking about one European beverage market, it may be more accurate to see several markets moving in a broadly similar direction, but at different speeds and for different reasons.

Water is another category showing how important positioning has become. In some markets, canned water is finding space as a format that speaks to convenience and a more contemporary product image. The idea is not to overcomplicate something basic, but to place it in a context where packaging says something about usage, serving temperature and even brand identity.

That is what makes this shift interesting for the industry. Non-alcoholic drinks do not seem to be growing only as alcohol alternatives, but as a category with its own language. For producers, buyers and distributors, the challenge is not simply to read a decline in alcohol. It is to understand how the broader perimeter of drinking is changing.