- Category – Beer, Low & No, 0.0% abv
- Available – From this month
- Location – Worldwide, available in 28 markets
- Price – In the UK, SRP of GBP4.50 (US$5.90) per 4x33cl pack
Asahi is to introduce an alcohol-free iteration of its flagship Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer brand.
Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% will launch across 28 international markets, including the UK, France, Italy, Singapore and Australia, this month, and replaces Peroni Libera 0.0% in Asahi’s ‘low & no’ stable. The beer will be available in both 33cl slimline can and 33cl bottle formats and in both on- and off-premise channels.
The group claims to have invested EUR20m (US$22m) developing the technology to replicate the full-alcohol version of Peroni in alcohol-free form. The process, undertaken at the group’s Rome brewery, involves using the base recipe and ingredients before a process of de-alcoholising to create a finished drink at 0.0% abv.
A global marketing campaign to support the launch is set to roll out across TV, on-demand video and Social Media later this month, while the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% logo and branding will also appear on Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant’s car for the upcoming Formula One season. Asahi’s sponsorship of the Aston Martin F1 team is entering its second year.
The new addition to the group’s ‘super-premium’ offering is part of its ‘Asahi Legacy 2030’ initiative – to have non-alcoholic products make up 20% of Asahi Europe & International’s portfolio by the end of the decade.
Following the launch, Asahi intends to delist Peroni Libera 0.0%, which was first launched in the UK in January 2019. In an interview with Just Drinks, Asahi’s global brands director Richard Ingram said the decision was not based on sales performance but instead around “amplifying the master brand”.
“What we wanted to do was to create the most superior and aspirational alcohol-free beer in the world,” he said. “We want people to feel the same way about when drinking it as they do the master brand.”
