Non-alcoholic G&T: South African taps into booming demand for alcohol-free drinks

Founder of The Duchess, a non-alcoholic gin and tonic brand, provides a detailed account of how he set up and grew the company.

Johannes le Roux

When Johannes le Roux began researching the development of a new ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage brand in 2015, he didn’t know that he would be the co-founder of The Duchess, a non-alcoholic gin and tonic producer. Today, the Cape Town-based business looks set to benefit from strong projected growth in the global non-alcoholic market over the next five years.

In 2015, having launched, scaled and sold a successful local brandy and cola business, Brannas Draught, Le Roux was ready for his next foray into the alcoholic beverage market.

“I learnt a lot about the beverage industry while developing Brannas Draught: how to create a brand from scratch, how to create the liquid, how to manufacture a beverage line and how the distribution network operates,” Le Roux tells How we made it in Africa.

Following the sale of his business, he travelled to the Netherlands to undertake market research and discovered considerable demand for alcohol-free products.

“The more research I did and the more people I spoke to about trending alcoholic drinks, I realised the vast majority were trying to cut down on their alcohol consumption. It was clear the global alcohol-free beverage category presented a fast-growing segment,” he says.

At the time, several alcohol-free beers had already entered the market, but no alcohol-free gin and tonics or wine spritzers were available.