Our health and lifestyle has never been more at the forefront than it is now. In light of the pandemic, what we eat and drink and how it affects us is something many people are now taking into consideration.
It could be one reason why a Scots lower craft beer option with calorie content on full display, is growing in popularity and becoming a go to alternative.
And now four years on, the team behind Scottish brewing company Gen!us believe that despite the pandemic they have positioned themselves for their best year yet and are hopeful they will appeal to health conscious staycationers.
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Navigating their way through the ups and downs of a running a business during a global pandemic, it forced them to alter and adapt but as we slowly emerge from lockdown restrictions, they believe the summer of potential home gatherings and staycations could fit right into their plans.
Gen!us founders Jason Clarke and Charlie Craig have been developing the business as well as supporting charity close to their hearts
“Covid has placed such importance on the health agenda. What people drink has become as important as how often they drink,” said founder and former army officer Jason Clarke. “From day one we have told people how many calories and units are in our beers and I think that is a major advantage for us in attracting people to Gen!us.
“Where we really see our beer coming into its own is that this year will be the year of summer barbecues and staycations and I think the lower or less alcohol beer with fewer calories will appeal to a lot of people. Now the big brands are bringing out their own versions of lighter beers so we must be getting something right.
“We have seen how Dry January has taken off in recent years and how people are looking at their whole lifestyle. We saw a gap in the market between what is classed as no alcohol and strong craft beers. We looked ahead at how alcohol consumption would be related to health and lifestyle when no one else had made the connection and now I think we have been proved right.”
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Recognising trends and developing the direction of the business is something Mr Clarke and his business partner Charlie Craig, who he went to university with and has experience in the craft beer industry, have been on top of. They set about developing the 3% beer which has 79 calories per can.
They already embraced change last year when they further developed their online shop to sell direct to customers when the hospitality industry shut down.
Gen!us founders Jason Clarke and Charlie Craig have been developing the business as well as supporting charity close to their hearts
And while it had been part of the plan, they delivered on e-commerce sooner than expected before ending the year with a platform on Amazon where they have seen sales steadily grow month by month since launching on the shopping website in November.
However, with the uncertainty of just when and how the hospital industry can unlock, Gen!us has put on hold its plans to deliver its draft product until 2022.
“With the uncertainty of everything surrounding the hospitality industry we have decided to put back our plans to launch a draft beer,” said added Mr Clarke. “We were lucky we hadn’t gone down that route last year when outlets would have been shut and we might have been sitting with 300 kegs of draft beer which we couldn’t do anything with.
“We don’t really know how the hospitality industry will be able to operate this year and we made a conscious decision because of that to delay the draft beer launch.”
When the business started out it was keen to have a conscious role in society and have a positive impact as well.
Doddie Weir who founded the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation following his diagnosis
From the outset Gen!us has been supporting My Name'5 Doddie Foundation (MN5DF) and it is a charity which is close to Mr Clarke’s heart. It was set up by the former Scotland rugby international following his diagnosis with Motor Neuron Disease.
Mr Clarke played rugby with Weir at school and played against him as well in the following years.
“I was as upset as anyone when Doddie announced his diagnosis and MND has affected our family as well. It just made sense that it would be the charity that the company would support,” added Mr Clarke. “We have raised nearly £25,000 for the charity and donate 5p from every can sold. We also helped to support others who were raising funds for the foundation. It is something we plan to continue - we want it to be something we do for Doddie."
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