According to NielsenIQ, the sales of non-alcoholic beverages grew 116% in the last year. Fueling this growth is the younger consumer that still wants to go out often but does not want to be consuming as much alcohol when out. Catering to this “sober curious” crowd, a number of brands have developed sophisticated lines of non-alcohol beverages that are flavorful and increasingly found in bars and restaurants. But what happens when you’d like to enjoy one of these mocktails or spirits at home? Boisson is an online and brick-and-mortar retailer focused on a vast selection of non-alcoholic options. Offering zero-proof wines, beers, spirits, aperitifs, and mixers, the company founded during the pandemic operates locations in Cobble Hill, Williamsburg, West Village, UES, and UWS with three locations opening soon in Los Angeles as well, all offering the convenience of a local liquor store or wine shop. Consumers can also shop from the comfort of their homes via the company’s website from a catalog of 125+ brands with free shipping on purchases of $125+. Boisson is also building a wholesale arm to supply restaurants and drinking establishments.
AlleyWatch caught up with Boisson Cofounder and CEO Nick Bodkins to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
$12M in seed funding. The round was co-led by Connect Ventures, the investment partnership between entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and Blue Scorpion Investments, an active leading consumer venture fund that has led previous rounds of Quip, Thursday Boots and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Michael Blank from Connect Ventures and Gautam Ahuja from Blue Scorpion Investments will be added to the Boisson board. Additional investors include Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, Midnight Ventures, and Red Krypton.
Tell us about the product or service that Boisson offers.
Boisson is the premier non-alcoholic retailer and distributor with an extensive collection of over 125 non-alcoholic beverage brands that offer zero-proof wines, beers, spirits, aperitifs, and mixers. The brand currently has five retail stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn with three Los Angeles locations soon to open. Additionally, Boisson offers nationwide shipping via its website.
What inspired the start of Boisson?
I first became interested in nonalcoholic drinks when my wife became pregnant and we sought out a substitute for our routine Thursday night Negronis.
I found several direct-to-consumer brands that sold nonalcoholic drinks online, but found it challenging to try out several different kinds of nonalcoholic drinks — while tracking multiple packages and dealing with occasional shipping delays.
After talking with my cofounder Barrie Arnold, who had cut back on drinking during the pandemic, we envisioned opening a store that would look and feel like a neighborhood liquor store or wine shop, where owners know customers and their tastes, while also making nonalcoholic beverages more widely available to the public.
How is Boisson different?
Boisson is the largest non-alcoholic retailer with over 125 non-alcoholic beverage brands that offer zero-proof wines, beers, spirits, aperitifs and mixers. In addition to our brick-and-mortar shops and e-commerce platform, the brand has plans for an on-premise arm of the business as well as an app that will allow customers to shop Boisson’s selections and see bars and restaurants near them that carry items they’ve purchased.
Further, in order to sustainably integrate Boisson’s offerings into new locations, Boisson has partnered with Ford Electric Vehicles for zero-emissions delivery to all on and off-premise distribution accounts.
What market does Boisson target and how big is it?
Boisson has brick-and-mortar shops in NYC and LA and reaches customers nationwide through its e-commerce platform.
What’s your business model?
We operate a hybrid e-commerce and retail channel, and are now expanding our channel footprint into wholesale to on-premise and off-premise distribution.
How are you preparing for a potential recession??
Our business has seen no slowdown in the last few months, and I think we look at this category as offering a small luxury. People may rethink a large purchase or a trip, but a bottle of wine—NA or alcoholic wine—for dinner isn’t something that most people look at as a discretionary spend. I’ve looked at other NA brands like Coca-Cola and Starbucks’ reactions and performance in 2000 and 2008 to see how they thought about it. We’re a new category, and I think that we’re seeing significant wind at our back as more consumers try NA for the first time. They find what they like and begin to form habits around NA consumption.
What was the funding process like?
Pitching Boisson was an exercise not dissimilar to educating consumers about our category overall. We got many of the same questions that our customers ask when they first discover our products, like “isn’t the wine just juice?”, but when we started talking about our customers have quickly come to trust our curation and our retail and e-commerce team’s focus on education, it was clear we have a real business here.
In many ways, what attracted them to our brand is our focus on first-party customer data, how we use it intelligently to help customers find products they will love, and how we’ve built early loyalty. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, many of the investors we spoke to were interestingly bullish about our hybrid e-commerce/retail model. Our industry vertical is new, consumers need to tactically touch and taste these brands. We walked them through our stores, and how we think about them: as spaces for education, sources of effective marketing email /SMS capture, and most importantly, last-mile delivery to customers to get them their products within an hour or so.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Educating investors on NA products and the industry as a whole was the biggest obstacle as we first had to overcome this before selling them on what specifically makes Boisson great.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think the most significant factor in funding happening is looking at Boisson as a category play. We’re like a sector ETF. The NA space is incredibly interesting and is growing significantly faster than a number of other CPG and drinks sectors. We’re early, and we’re not sure who the winners will be yet.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
On the heels of this round closing, Boisson will be expanding its store presence to Los Angeles, with three new locations slated to open throughout August and September in Studio City, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
We scraped by, convinced landlords to take a chance on us, and burned the candle at both ends and in the middle. If you have an idea that’s gaining traction, press where it makes sense, put your head down, and show investors that your thesis is valid.
We scraped by, convinced landlords to take a chance on us, and burned the candle at both ends and in the middle. If you have an idea that’s gaining traction, press where it makes sense, put your head down, and show investors that your thesis is valid.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Following the shop expansion in Los Angeles, Boisson has plans to open additional stores in major markets across the U.S and internationally, in addition to launching new content platforms to support the growth of the zero-proof category.
The brand is also launching an on-premise arm of the business, which will offer wholesale distribution, product education, and unparalleled consumer data to enable restaurants, bars, and hospitality properties to expand their non-alcoholic cocktail, spirit, and wine offerings.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Rezdôra, hands down. My good friend David Switzer opened it in 2019, and from day one, I knew it was special.
