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A couple of years ago, Nick Bodkins attempted to make his wife a non-alcoholic Negroni as she was going through in vitro fertilization. “I was trying to provide a sense of normalcy to her during that process,” he recalls. But as he began searching for cocktail ingredients online, he fell into what he described as “the typical DTC trap” as he attempted to source non-alcoholic versions of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth from multiple e-commerce sites: “You end up with three boxes, three accounts, three companies you are buying from, three shipping rates.”

The frustrating experience led Bodkins to a business idea: building the equivalent of a neighborhood wine and liquor store solely dedicated to non-alcoholic drinks. Hundreds of sophisticated non-alc brands have hit the market in recent years as health-conscious consumers embrace moderation. But the idea of selling them all in one place—without the accompaniment of boozy products—had not yet taken hold.

Bodkins’ vision—which includes a hybrid physical store/e-commerce selling approach—became a reality in early 2021 when he and a business partner launched Boisson. The retail brand began with one store in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood and now has five locations across New York. Now, Boisson is about to test the West Coast appetite for a fancy, non-alcohol-only retailer as it expands into Los Angeles with three stores—in Brentwood, Beverly Hills and Studio City.

Studio City, California store rendering

“A lot of beverage trends tend to start in New York and migrate west, and a lot of health trends tend to start in L.A. and migrate east,” Bodkins said. “We are this weird juxtaposition between the two—we kind of a health trend and we are also kind of a beverage trend.”

The L.A. expansion is being supported by a $12 million seed funding round led by Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, as well as Blue Scorpion Investments, a consumer venture fund. The investment brought Boisson’s valuation to $47 million, according to an April announcement. 

Boisson also named Katy Perry to its advisory board earlier this month. The pop star recently founded non-alc canned cocktail brand De Soi for which Boisson served as the brand’s first New York retailer.  

De Soi—whose tagline says “we savor the flavor and lose the booze”—is a line of non-alcoholic apéritifs made with natural botanicals. Perry founded it with Morgan McLachlan, the master distiller at Amass Spirits. They met in 2020 while both pregnant and looking for non-alc options, according to Bloomberg News.

Boisson is trying to build buzz for its L.A. entry with a new campaign targeting digital channels that plugs the store’s offerings as “non-alcoholic alternatives that spark curiosity” for the “Free Spirited of L.A.” The campaign, made in-house, includes videos showing people in traditional bar settings, but also on hiking trails and at the beach. The media buy includes YouTube pre-roll ads and connected TV via MNTN, the Ryan Reynolds-backed platform. Boisson is also considering digital out-of-home ads in the L.A. market in the fourth quarter.

Boisson’s expansion comes as sales of non-alcoholic drinks continue to surge. Off-premise U.S. sales, including at bars and restaurants, reached $3.3 billion last year, according to NielsenIQ, which credits the rise to the so-called “sober curious” movement. Instead of giving up drinking for good, more people are drinking less for health reasons and to avoid hangovers. “Rather than cutting out alcohol entirely, consumers are exploring elements of a booze-free lifestyle without fully abstaining,” Nielsen IQ stated in a report in January.

While U.S. non-alc sales still account for just 0.5% market share of total alcohol sales, the segment is expected to keep gaining ground. Sales volume of no- and low-alcohol products will grow 8% on a compound annual basis from 2021 to 2025, compared with the 0.7% rate of growth expected for the regular alcohol sector, according to IWSR, which researches the drinks industry and bases its findings on 10 key markets, including the U.S., U.K., Brazil and Germany.

Bars, restaurants and stores are stocking more non-alc products in response to the new demand, and alcohol drinks giants, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors and Diageo, are coming out with more sophisticated non-alc beverages. 

But Bodkins does not think that traditional alcohol retailers will embrace the non-alc segment to its fullest potential. Complex state regulations are one reason—New York liquor stores are not allowed to sell non-alc products, for instance. “We actually believe that liquor stores, wine stores, etc. are not ever going to give this category the same level of SKU depth that we are,” he said. SKUs refer to the number of varieties sold, and Bosson has plenty—stocking some  400 to 450 items per store, ranging from non-alcoholic Pinot Noir to booze-free tequila.

Bodkins drew a comparison to Sephora, which has a huge range of beauty products, far more than what you’d get “walking into your Walgreens or CVS.” 

While there are a handful of other pure-play non-alc sellers—Spirited Away in New York claims to be “America's first booze-free bottle shop”—Boisson, which means “beverage” in French, is trying to separate itself with sophisticated sales and marketing systems. Bodkins is calling on experience gained working in the marketing technology field, including a stint at Simon Data, which operates a customer data platform. 

Boisson has assembled large quantities of first-party data tracking consumer preferences gathered both in-store and online that are used in one-to-one marketing, including emails and a soon-to-be-released app. (Seven in 10 in-store customers provide their email address, Bodkins said.) For instance, Boisson often knows if a consumer is pregnant or in addition recovery—and in those cases it will send recommendations for products that contain zero traces of alcohol. (In the U.S., drinks with less than 0.5% alcohol by volume can be labeled "non-alcohlic.")

In stores, the retailer is careful to promote a “no-judgment” atmosphere. “There are a million reasons why you may be choosing not to drink tonight…or this week, or this month. You are on your own personal journey. But we are not here to tell you you can’t drink anymore,” Bodkins said. “We are telling you…there are some really great cocktails and wines out there you can pair with  dinner with your friends that…just happen to not have alcohol in them.”

He declined to disclose sales figures but said revenue is split about 50%-50% between its e-commerce site and in-store sales and that Boisson expects to finish the year with an eight-figure revenue total. 

Boisson is also investing in a small but growing distribution business; it supplies non-alc products to about 30 venues, including the Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, Eleven Madison Park in NYC. 

Boisson is using in-store consumer data to grow its wholesaling business, including sharing its intelligence on what the popular non-alc drinks are in a particular region. “I can walk into restaurant XYZ and I can say here are the taste preferences in this neighborhood of everything that I am selling,” Bodkins said. The forthcoming app will include a map feature allowing users to see which local bars and restaurants sell their favorite non-alc drinks; in-app integrations with reservation systems will allow users to make reservations in that moment.

Bodkins, now a father, says he and his wife continue to mix alcohol options with non-alcohol drinks, saving the booze occasions for about once a week. 

“I don’t drink five bottles of $20 wine throughout the week. I only drink one night a week and I end up drinking a much better bottle of wine because it is a treat rather than something I just do out of habit,” he said, noting he now more often wakes up “feeling refreshed.”

“My daughter is 11 months old, she starts crying in the morning...whether I have a hangover or not,” he said.

~ ~ ~ CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Katy Parry is an investor in Boisson. That information was provided to Ad Age by a representative in error.

E.J. Schultz is the News Editor for Ad Age, overseeing breaking news and daily coverage. He also contributes reporting on the beverage, automotive and sports marketing industries. He is a former reporter for McClatchy newspapers, including the Fresno Bee, where he covered business and state government and politics.