Sobr Market rides non-alcoholic beverage wave ‘Timing has been everything’: Winnipeg company doubles floor space in Academy Road move By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 5:46 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 23, 2024 Last Modified: 10:31 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 23, 2024 Updates

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An alcohol-free buzz has one Winnipeg-based company on a rapid expansion path.

Sobr Market is moving its non-alcoholic beers, wines and mocktail mixes into 390 Academy Rd. The new site — by the Academy Lanes-turned-apartment complex — nearly doubles its current floor space at 484 Academy Rd.

Co-founders Jessie and Shane Halliburton spent 14 months selling from the smaller shop. Before, for five months, their beverages occupied a corner of GoodLocal in the Exchange District.

“Timing has been everything,” said Jessie Halliburton. “The non-alcoholic beverage industry has just exploded in the last year.”

In Toronto, too — Sobr Market has opened two downtown Toronto shops within the past few months.

The Halliburtons began their entrepreneurial venture in 2022 after Shane stopped drinking alcohol. He’d order non-alcoholic alternatives from across the globe and figured there was a business opportunity — and so, an online Sobr Market was born.

“At the same time, we were looking for this personally, other people were also doing it,” Jessie Halliburton said.

She believes it’s why, since early 2023, Sobr Market has hopped from the shared Exchange District space to Academy Road (and Academy Road again) in search of more room. It continues its online shop, where wholesale and international orders amass.

The upcoming store will host cocktail-making workshops, a first for the company, and new drinks. A tasting bar will consume part of the roughly 1,800-square-foot facility.

“This will be our forever home,” Halliburton said.

Sobr Market is targeting an opening date of July 30. It’s operating its other Academy Road site on limited hours until the new place’s doors officially unlock.

After summer, the business plans to open seven days per week with its roughly seven staff.

The Halliburtons also employ people at their Winnipeg warehouse and two Toronto storefronts.

“Timing has been everything. The non-alcoholic beverage industry has just exploded in the last year.”–Jessie Halliburton

At first, 511 Richmond St. West was a coffee shop seeking a non-alcoholic bottle dealer to take some space. Sobr Market moved in last November.

“It was very successful,” Halliburton recalled.

When the coffee shop closed, Sobr Market renovated the full area for its own use, reopening in April. Two months later, it began sales at Harbourfront Centre.

More stores may be en route, Halliburton hinted: “As Shane would put it, he just wants to get drinks in people’s hands.”

It’s about accessibility and educating consumers on non-alcoholic options, she added.

Demand for such drinks seems to keep growing, said Shaun Jeffrey, CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association.

The global market for no- and low-alcohol beverages could reach $359 million by 2026, a 67 per cent growth, Bacardi noted in its 2024 trends report.

Eateries have adjusted, creating “outside-the-box kind of beverages” for people wanting mocktails and other non-alcoholic alternatives, Jeffrey explained.

“Especially the ones that are really catering to that … younger crowd, they had to adapt.”

Typically, people aren’t trading alcohol for non-alcoholic beverages. Instead, customers are buying mocktails instead of, say, a soda, Jeffrey differentiated. Brews with low alcohol content are also popular, he added.

The industry has clocked a reduction in alcohol sales, mirroring a Canada-wide trend.

Across the country, alcohol sales declined 1.1 per cent between 2022 and 2023, Statistics Canada found. Beer purchases dropped to an all-time low since StatsCan began tracking in 1949.

Dylan MacKay is among the Canadians reconsidering their alcohol consumption after recent findings. Last year, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction warned any amount of alcohol is unsafe and drastically reduced the number of drinks per day considered to be low risk.

“It’s nice to have that option. Especially if you’re out with your girlfriends and you’re driving.”–Wendy Hart

MacKay said he drank more during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns; now he’s “significantly reduced” his intake and feels better.

Many populations within Canada don’t drink alcohol, and medications used for weight loss (such as Ozempic) are shown to decrease desire for alcohol. Both could factor into more people reaching for non-alcoholic beverages, noted MacKay, a University of Manitoba food and human nutritional sciences professor.

“It’s nice to have that option,” Wendy Hart said of alcohol-free drinks. “Especially if you’re out with your girlfriends and you’re driving.”

Hart works at Beyond the Alley Boutique, a shop near Sobr Market’s new location. She thinks the business could draw traffic to the area.

Gayle Sidney, owner of McDiarmid Flowers, echoed Hart.

“It’s in the best interest of everybody on the street to have every unit rented and operational,” Sidney stated. “It’s gonna help my business, too.”

The space had been empty for at least three years, according to Sylvia Heebner, a resident at Uptown Lofts.

She called Sobr Market “a good addition” to the neighbourhood.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com