Meet Mike Gammell, Co-Founder at 0.0% B Corp Beer Brand: Days

Days is an award-winning alcohol-free beer brand brewed for those who love great beer and living a healthier lifestyle. Using locally sourced natural ingredients and a unique alcohol-free brewing process, we’ve created a range of crisp, fresh and sessionable beers that are 0.0% abv.

As a brand, we celebrate the positive lifestyle reasons for drinking less alcohol and as one of the few B-Corp certified beer business in the UK, we commit 2% of all sales to mental health organisations. We meticulously craft our beers to take away the compromise – great taste, great flavour, zero side effects.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Duncan & I both love beer and its unique ability to bring people together but realised that we were moving away from that ritual and occasion because it no longer lined up with our lifestyles. We were taking work more seriously and starting to prioritise our physical and mental health and realised that alcohol was starting to get in the way of everything we wanted to do. We still wanted that beer “moment” – flavour, refreshment & sociability and we got really excited when we started to question why beer always needed to equal alcohol!

Often when we wanted a few beers on a week night, over lunch or after exercise we didn’t want “the buzz” of alcohol. We really just wanted a light, refreshing adult tasting beverage and the social connection that only a beer brings.

That’s what got us really excited about Days because for us, it’s not about “moderation” or “no/low”. It’s actually about MORE. It’s about more beer, in more occasions with more consumers. Taking everything great about beer- taste, flavour and social occasions and helping it stay relevant for modern consumers who want to make the most of their time. I used to work at ABInBev and Duncan has built his career in FMCG scale ups so we realised the importance of building a genuine purpose driven business that puts the consumer first.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

We launched Days in October 2020 so we have known nothing but the pandemic! The nature of the world meant that we launched entirely online, as bars and restaurants were closed. That focus has been something of a blessing as it has meant we’ve been able to build an amazingly strong and engaged community who we have learnt so much from.

We speak to our consumers every day and have been able to build a real understanding of why they’re drinking Days and what role it plays in their lives which gives us a real advantage as we start to build out into more traditional channels. There’s also no question that through the pandemic there has been a seismic shift in how people are prioritising their physical and mental fitness.

People tell us all of the time that they’d never have gone for an alcohol free beer two years ago but now they “get it”. That’s really exciting for us. Alcohol Free beer is currently 2% of the beer market in the UK & US. When you take a step back and see the amount of occasions for AF beer combined with this huge health and wellness trend we think it’s likely than pretty soon AF beer will be >10% of total beer in the UK & the US. That’s a huge industry and a really positive thing to be involved with.

What can we hope to see from Days in the future?

One of the tricky things about being a Co-Founder is the juggling of “Where is this business in 5 years?” with “what do we need to get done today!?“.Over the last 12 months we’ve been blown away by the reaction to our 0.0% beers so now the priority is building a fantastic team and culture and continuing to invest with our great partners in the trade.

We’re committed to helping beer evolve and stay relevant for modern consumers and I definitely want to make sure we keep having as much fun doing it.